A Different Tide
by FadeIntoBlack
Summary: A vision in the night leads to different decisions, a different life for Naruto. Chunin Exam Arc. (Be back soon, people! With redone and touched up chapters too!)
1. Visions in the Night

**Shifting Tides**

Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, panting and scared out of his mind. He just had a weird dream, a very long and terrible dream in which he thought he saw his entire life up until his death.

He'd become Hokage, but a lot of things didn't sit well with him. He didn't end up with Sakura, many people he became close to died because of Sasuke's actions, Sarutobi died and he was nowhere around to help him, there was a goddamn war and so many other things that didn't make sense to the young boy. His preteen mind only registered that he didn't want a future like that. He didn't want to end up having to settle for second best. And most of all he would not allow his dreams of his perfect future be ruined by other people's goals…..

Somehow he knew that he'd been shown a possible future. _**His possible future.**_ And he was not satisfied with how things turned out. He had the demon fox- Kurama the Kyuubi no Yoko- sealed in him. He got impaled by the Uchiha Teme. Why would he try to save someone who could be selfish enough to lose himself so far in a quest for vengeance that he abandoned his friends and tried to take their lives so many times? Sakura picked Sasuke after all that he'd done for her. How could a girl not give him a chance or return his feelings after all that? Risked himself for her? No… he could never allow people to take that much advantage of his heart and kindness.

That night the old Uzumaki Naruto died. The new Naruto had been dealt a new hand by fate, and he was about to take full advantage of it.

* * *

Naruto didn't get any sleep that night. Instead he took an old notebook and began writing down vital things from the dream as long as they were fresh in his mind. He remembered the Kage Bunshin and Rasengan theories, as he'd done them so many times in his dream. He decided to steer his life in a better direction, with a better ending for his loved ones and himself.

The next morning, he dumped all his instant ramen into the trash and decided to pay Ichiraku's a visit for some help.

It was pretty early in the morning, so he found Teuchi just opening up the shop for the day.

"Naruto! This is the earliest I've seen you up and about! If you want ramen you'll have to wait a few since nothing is ready yet." said Teuchi in his usual kind manner towards Naruto.

Naruto felt tears welling up in his eyes and he himself was confused as to why he felt like crying seeing the man in front of him. He realized that the person setting up shop in front of him never once treated him with anything other than kindness and that this kindness was something he'd been taking for granted.

Quickly wiping away the tears, he cleared his throat so Teuchi wouldn't find anything odd. "Uh, I'm just here to ask for some help and I thought that you'd have some time to spare early in the morning before people start coming in."

Teuchi seemed a bit surprised at how serious Naruto looked and stopped setting the shop up to look at the boy. "What's this about? Did something happen?"

"What? No! Nothing happened, I simply thought that I should start acting more serious if I wanna be a ninja of the village and I sorta have nothing in my apartment to eat other than instant ramen and Jiji keeps telling me I should eat better or I'll get sick and stuff. I thought I'd come ask you if you could give me some cooking lessons? If its not too inconvenient? Please?" he explained, hoping to get a positive answer.

"I'm sorry, I don't have the time to do that Naruto." Seeing Naruto's let down expression, he quickly added, "But I can have Ayame teach you. All you have to do is come to the shop at this time and learn from her while I handle business. Since its slow in the mornings I should be able to handle things myself." he said smiling. "Tell you what, since you don't know how to cook yet, how about you join us for breakfast everyday?"

Naruto was shocked at the offer. To be offered so much for free, he felt blessed to have known Ichiraku Teuchi. He hugged the man's feet and thanked him while giving him his biggest grin.

"Ahaha it's the least I can do for the future Hokage!" Teuchi said laughing before taking a stern expression. "Make sure you learn everything Ayame teaches you perfectly, she won't have time later once she gets older. She'll have her own studies and work, understand?"

"Of course! I'll be the best student ever dattebayo!"

Teuchi gave him a warm smile and got back to work.

* * *

Naruto was writing up his monthly expenses in his notebook. Since he wouldn't be spending money on breakfast for the foreseeable future, he planned to save that money and buy some decent equipment. He still had two more years left at the academy since that's when everyone he remembered from his dream would graduate, so he planned use that time to become as skilled as he could get, while hiding said skills from everyone of course, how would he explain where he learned Kage Bunshin? No, his training would not include Kage Bunshin until he beat Mizuki in his last year, which meant he was going to have to fail. Twice.

His eyes twitched in irritation as he realized this. He'd have to fail on purpose. That however didn't mean he wouldn't learn all that he could. No way. He would exercise , read and do everything to be ahead in skills. He would get as close to his ideal future as possible.

But first he needed new clothes. His want to be noticed and acknowledged gave birth to his love of orange, but he didn't have that anymore. He finally saw that orange was a very stupid choice of colour. No, it was downright hideous.

* * *

-Two Years Later-

"You fail Naruto. Sorry." said Iruka.

Naruto looked depressed and walked out defeated.

"Hey Naruto." he heard Mizuki call from behind.

For just a second, Naruto had the biggest shit-eating grin in the Elemental Nations.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hi there, this is FiB. This is my first time writing here, so constructive criticism is welcome. Please don't ask questions while anonymous or i will not be able to answer. And if you really wanna flame the story, go ahead and waste your time. I won't waste mine by answering. Till next time.


	2. Trickery

**Getting Started**

"Hmm. What other techniques are in this scroll?" mused Naruto. He already knew Kage Bunshin so it occurred to him that he could try and find more interesting techniques in the scroll, but everything in the scroll required more chakra control than he had. Even after refining his control after seeing his future, he had not made mind-blowing progress. He wondered many times if getting on friendlier terms with the Nine Tails would help him in some way, but he decided to plan more before actually going that far.

Over the two years he'd known about his future, he spent more time than ever studying and training himself to prepare for what the future held. He tried walking on his apartment walls, standing on bathtub water, balancing leaves he brought home and pretty much everything he could do without rousing suspicion. He also out himself through lots of exercises he saw Taijutsu students do on the training fields to strengthen his body. He had a couple of Kage Bunshin doing his academy assignments and reading for him while he himself did things he needed to do personally such as learn cooking and workout. He still didn't know if he was stronger than the other students of his class since he really couldn't risk Mizuki asking someone other than him to get the Scroll of Seals and as a result lose his excuse to where he learned Kage Bunshin from.

Speaking of his class, he realized that no one took him seriously there. He wasn't just the class clown, **he was the** _ **class joke**_. He was the student no one had any expectations from, he was just a person that occupies space and most of the students would rather he not show up at all. There were however a few people that treated him neutrally like Shikamaru and Choji, and one that even admired him for his beliefs and actions. He also understood that constantly pining for Sakura's affections would only lessen his value in her eyes, he'd need to be as interesting and skilled as Sasuke to even hope to gain any attention from her. He didn't know about interesting but he sure as hell intended to outshine Sasuke in skill no matter what.

After seeing that all the techniques in the scroll required at least Jonin level skill in manipulating elements, he gave up trying to accomplish anything from the scroll and focus on how he intended to handle Mizuki. After a while, Iruka showed up with a stern face.

"Found the nosebleeder!" Naruto said with a foxy grin.

"You idiot! _I_ found _you_!" Iruka screamed with a comically annoyed expression. "Why would you take that scroll Naruto?"

Naruto told him his reasons and remembered that Mizuki was supposed to strike right at that moment. Quickly grabbing Iruka by the hand, he jumped aside as numerous kunai embedded themselves into the cabin wall.

Iruka followed the direction of the bladed weapons and found Mizuki sneering at them from a tree branch.

"Mizuki? What- is what Naruto said true? Why?!"

Mizuki laughed. "I don't think I need to answer any of your questions Iruka but since we're here, I'll tell you. All I want is power, and I can get all that power by taking that scroll that brat holds, you know the things a man can do with that scroll right? Now hand it over and I may be kind enough to spare you."

"Naruto run back to the village with the scroll, I'll hold Mizuki of-"

But his words fell on deaf ears. For the first time ever Naruto had the chance to see if all his training paid off. He knew that Mizuki outranked him. He knew he didn't stand a chance against Mizuki in a one on one fight. He knew he had no experience in real combat. But he knew that he had the freedom to use the technique that defined his fighting style in his dream.

"Leave this to me sensei! **KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!** " he yelled.

Where in his dream stood a thousand now stood nearly thrice the amount. Naruto was overjoyed that his chakra control training had paid off and as a result he managed to divide his chakra better than he thought.

Iruka's mouth hung open. Mizuki dropped his Fūma Shuriken. Naruto grinned.

"Ready Mizuki-sensei?" said Naruto while his clones snickered and got ready to pounce.

Mizuki turned around only to see all routes of escape blocked by blonde clones.

"Where you going? I thought you wanted this scroll?" said Naruto. "Well you can have it!" and with that Naruto threw the large scroll with all his might at Mizuki's face where it landed with a smack and a crunch on the nose.

"Full marks for precision, extra for the broken nose." said Iruka who had regained some composure. "Now lets see how well you know the Academy Taijutsu Style." He added smiling.

"With pleasure sensei!"

-Fifteen Minutes Later-

"It seems you know your stuff Naruto." said Iruka.

Mizuki groaned.

"Hehehe I think I went a bit overboard." Naruto said scratching the back of his head.

More groans.

"Nonsense!" Iruka walked over to Mizuki's prone form and kicked him. "This piece of shit deserves worse, taking advantage of Academy students. Right, that reminds me. Come here Naruto. And close your eyes."

"Don't kiss me."

"IDIOT!"

"Ehehe sorry."

Naruto did as he said. He felt a piece of cloth wrap around his forehead and remembered that this was when he got promoted to Genin. He had forgotten in the excitement of the battle.

"Open your eyes, you little baka."

Naruto saw Iruka smiling at him with a bare forehead.

"Congratulations on making Genin. You are now a ninja of The Village Hidden in the Leaves!"

Naruto felt his eyes water and rushed Iruka into a hug.

* * *

The Next Day

'Ah, finally. Two years have passed… now I can start being serious.'

Dumping the orange abominations in the trash bin, Naruto put on a black T-shirt with a small red Uzumaki swirl near the back of the neck with mesh armor underneath and a pair of green camo pants. He had white tape on both arms and legs hiding the weights usually hidden by his orange jacket. He tied his forehead protector around his left hip so his hair covered his forehead and shadowed his eyes.

He looked himself in the mirror. "Hmm. Definitely more human."

Academy

As he walked in a student pointed and said "What're you doing here? Don't you know only people who passed the test can come here?"

Naruto pointed to his hip where his forehead protector was and smiled. "I did pass."

The boy looked unconvinced but let it slide.

Naruto looked around the class. Hinata was blushing and stealing glances at his direction, Shikamaru was passed out on his desk, Choji was eating chips, Kiba was laughing along with his group of delinquent friends, Shino was sitting near an open window, Ino was making eyes at Sasuke while he had hands intertwined in front of his face while he brooded. He took a seat far away from Sasuke as he remembered what happened in his dream when he took a seat next to him. He wanted his first kiss to be memorable in a completely different way. And with a girl.

He watched as Sakura walked into the classroom and took a seat next to Sasuke and an idea popped into Naruto's mind. Why didn't he take advantage of the numerous times Sasuke was bound to choose power over the team to prove to Sakura that he wasn't worth it? And not just because he had a thing for her, because he honestly thought he wasn't worth it. People like Sasuke didn't deserve happiness. They only know how to take away happiness.

He wouldn't go against Sasuke from the start as he hasn't done any of the horrible things yet, but he also wouldn't allow him to do any of those terrible crimes either. And if he still ended up being the same person he saw in his dream, he would kill him without regret.

"Okay quiet down all of you! From today you are a ninja of the Hidden Leaf. But you're only Genin, so you'll be put into cells of three with a Jonin sensei to teach you. Also, we tried to balance the team according to strength of its members so no team is weaker than the next."

The students all started voicing their outrage at the fact that they wouldn't get to pick their team.

Naruto already knew where this was headed.

"Team 7: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto-"

Sakura hung her head at this. Naruto frowned noticing this but immediately turned back to Iruka.

"-and Uchiha Sasuke."


	3. Trials of Team 7

**Trials of Team 7**

"So. Lets introduce ourselves. Tell me a little about yourself, your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams." Kakashi said, looking incredibly bored.

Naruto however, chose to remain silent and studied his Jonin Sensei. He didn't get much from his efforts, the man looked perfectly normal apart from his spiky silver hair and covered eye. From what he remembered, Kakashi was an incredibly formidable opponent and Naruto intended to learn all that he could from him.

"You seem suspicious, why don't you go first? We don't know anything about you." said Sakura.

"Hm? Fine. My name is Hatake Kakashi, my likes? Not telling you. Dislikes? Uh, not anything you'd wanna know.. I have lots of hobbies. Dreams? Never really thought about those."

All three genin had annoyed looks.

"Okay! From the left. Start."

"Uh, I'm Haruno Sakura, my likes are-*blush* I mean I want to-*blush*, my dislikes are Ino-pig! My hobbies-*blush* and my dream is to-*blush*"

Kakashi sweatdropped. Naruto tilted his head. Maybe since he didn't persistently pursue Sakura, she didn't outright dislike him. Perhaps he could have a different start to their friendship this time around.

"Er, in the middle, your turn."

"The name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen. Dislikes? Not really sure if that's the word…hmm…" he entered a thinking pose. Kakashi looked intently at him. "….I'll think about that one." All of the people present had deadpan expressions at this. "Hobbies? Making ramen. Dreams? Not all that interested in dreams." _More interested in reality._

Kakashi studied Naruto's facial expressions for a few seconds. "On the right, go."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't really have that many likes and have lots of things I dislike. Dreams…. I can't really call it a dream since I want to make it a reality, the restoration of my clan, and to kill a certain man."

Kakashi's eye narrowed at the last bit. But reverted back to normal almost instantly.

"Well since we all know each other its time for our first assignment. Survival training."

"Why is our first mission more training? We did enough of that back at the Academy."

"Kakashi began laughing. "You see this training is special…"

-The Next Day-

Naruto arrived at the time Kakashi told him to arrive, since he wasn't supposed to have anyway of knowing Kakashi's habit of arriving late. He didn't skip breakfast either.

He saw Sakura and Sasuke already waiting where Kakashi said to be.

He smiled at Sakura who looked away. Sasuke was leaning against a tree and had his eyes closed. Naruto considered trying to make conversation, but he really didn't know where to start. How do you start talking to two people who think you're dead weight on their team?

He lay down under a tree and closed his eyes as he did a chakra exercise that he picked up in the library. It was supposed to help control abnormally large amounts of chakra and as similar to meditation. The idea was to imagine your chakra as a whole and then cut in two parts, one smaller and one larger, and use the smaller one to get things done while the larger one replenishes the smaller one. It was said to be unproven, since most people that have reserves as big as required to do this exercise develop the reserves through training and have control. Very few develop the reserves without training so there was no proof as to whether the exercise would do anything. Naruto did it anyway since it required no physical strain.

-A Biiiiiiiig While Later-

"Yo."

"You're late." Naruto said, not opening his eyes.

"I got lost on the Road of Life."

"I see."

Sakura's eyes were twitching. Sasuke was glaring at Kakashi who merely smiled.

"Let's get down to business." he said. "See these bells here? Your job is to get these bells from me before lunch. One each."

"I see two bells. Where's the third?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi smiled. "Anyone without a bell will be tied to a wooden post while we eat lunch in front of him or her. Also, the loser will be sent back to the academy."

Eyes widened and stomachs growled.

"Three against one? You'll get hurt!"

Naruto cocked his head to the right. "A three man team? Something is off here. What aren't you telling us?"

Kakashi's lone eye instantly went to his face which he made sure to keep a smile on.

"Regardless of what the _dead last_ may think, this is your assignment. Be sure to come at me with the intent to kill or you'll never pass. Start when I say to. GO!"

Instantly Sasuke and Sakura disappeared from his sides while he remained.

"Hm? Want to try your luck Naruto?"

"You bet I do. But before that, I want to know why you lied just now. There's no such thing as two genins on a team, so why scare them like that?"

"I'm the Jonin who'll be your sensei if you pass this test, and you're accusing me of lying to my possible students?"

Naruto pretended to think. "Sounds about right. If I were to guess, you told us to get the bells to see if we work together or we work alone. Right? The test is teamwork?"

Kakashi still had a poker face on.

"Knew it." Two Kage Bunshin appeared at Naruto's side as he made the cross hand seal.

Kakashi reached into his pouch and brought out the infamous orange book. Suddenly, his arms were trapped from behind him, and the book fell from his hand. Before it could hit the ground, another clone snatched it and tossed it to the real Naruto.

"Icha Icha Paradise? You have no taste."

Even though Kakashi didn't look it, he was incredibly surprised. He knew that Naruto knew the Mage Bunshin no Jutsu. He didn't notice the two extra clones coming up from behind him, however and nor did he see Naruto make them. Which meant Naruto prepared them beforehand. He was told Naruto had the lowest level of skills in his class. Then what was happening right now?

 _ **Rrrrrriiiiip.**_

"Horrible paper quality. Barely touched it. Uh sorry, I guess."

Kakashi stared at the torn pieces of his treasure lying at Naruto's feet. Suddenly the clone holding him dispelled, and he was in front of Naruto grabbing him by the collar.

"You shouldn't have done that. That book was a treasurable piece of literature and I was just getting to the good part."

" _You_ shouldn't have underestimated me like you still are. They'll know what this test in about 5 minutes and we'll have passed this test. And that book of yours? It's worth less than my sh-"

Kakashi tried to throw Naruto into the river only to have him burst into smoke. The clones he made were gone too, no doubt looking for Sasuke and Sakura to inform them of the meaning of the test with an excellent display of what teamwork was all about. That kid's skills were scary. Kakashi started running in a burst of speed, looking for Sasuke and Sakura before Naruto could find them.

* * *

A/N: My apologies, I did not have much free time to write even though I knew what I wanted to do with this chapter. And rest assured, I have no intention at all of abandoning the fanfiction.

Edit: The Love Interest Poll is up! Pick the love interest you want. Since I'm so awesome, you get two choices each.


	4. A Test of Skill

**A Test of Skill**

Kakashi was running incredibly fast through the forest while his visible eye darted around looking for anything pink, black or blonde. He decided to give Naruto some respect and take him more seriously after that display of wit from the 'dead last' of this year's batch of genin. He wondered if Sasuke and Sakura were stronger or better than Naruto, them being at the top of the class. He was impressed at how Naruto caught him off guard and wondered how many skills he was still hiding. Suddenly he saw Sakura crouching in front of a bush facing away from him. Kakashi Body Flickered behind her and grabbed her shoulder as he prepared to knock her out with a mild genjutsu. However, she turned around and Kakashi saw his own face sitting on her neck. He stared at the absurd sight in front of him for a few seconds before the deformed… thing raised its hand in greeting.

"Yo." it said. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I'm a huge pervert who likes to read smut and even though I'm supposed to be this big shot Jonin, I let a genin fresh out of the academy outsmart me and now I'm wasting my time listening to a henged clone made by the same genin, obviously to stall me, as he outplays me agai-"

The rest of its speech was interrupted by Kakashi's shaking fist as he let that insult sink in. How on earth would he live that one down? Deep down however, he hoped that this team passed. Naruto had grown up to be very interesting and Kakashi could see endless potential in him. But first he needed find the little shit and give him a major ass kicking…

* * *

Elsewhere, Naruto was resisting the urge to roll on the ground and laugh. The plan he made on the fly actually worked. Kakashi's expression was worth more than a million ryo. He had already found Sasuke and tried to inform him before Sasuke interrupted him and told him he already knew. Naruto was pretty sure 'knew' meant 'watched you get the info from Kakashi but since I am such a huge prick I won't acknowledge you'.

He simply shrugged Sasuke's attitude off and told him what he had in mind to pass the test.

"You don't get to tell me what to do, dobe." Sasuke retorted.

Naruto simply stared at him. "Trust me, I'd rather fail than have to work with you. But passing this test is the fastest way to achieve my goals. So don't ever assume I'm doing this willingly. Question is, do you have the will to do what's necessary to reach your goals fast? Since you're just complaining about petty issues and all." and with that the clone dispelled leaving Sasuke with gritted teeth. Who was Naruto to question _his_ resolve? What did he know of his goals? Sasuke set these thoughts aside and decided to comply with Naruto's plans. Only to get to Itachi faster, nothing else.

The real Naruto had a satisfied smirk on his face. He had just found Sakura when the clone's memories hit him. He knew he said the right things to get Sasuke to comply with his plans.

"Sakura! Over here! The test is about-" _WHAM!_

Naruto was slammed into a tree by a kick from what turned out to be Kakashi henged as Sakura.

"….Ugh…. Should've seen that coming…." Naruto groaned.

Kakashi smiled. "I'll admit, this is the most fun I've had in a long time, Naruto. Very impressive."

"How'd you get here so fast? I just got the memories from the clone- that was a clone of yours, wasn't it? The one that found Sakashi?"

"Indeed! And now that I've found the real you, imagine how much fun we shall have together!" Kakashi replied, cracking his knuckles and giving off a dark and haunting aura while smiling with his eye.

"Sounds interesting. My clone just found Sakura anyway. We all know the meaning of the test now, and you know we'll pass, so why don't we just uh….skip whatever 'fun' you had in mind?"

Kakashi continued smiling. "No." he lunged at Naruto with a kunai drawn.

Naruto drew his own kunai and managed to block Kakashi's swipe. Kakashi tried to sweep Naruto's feet from the ground with a vicious kick, but Naruto back flipped and landed with both feet on the tree behind him and jumped up using chakra to stick onto the bark.

"Full of surprises, aren't you?" Kakashi commented before following him up the tree at a faster pace. Naruto made the cross sign and two clones appeared beside him and rushed Kakashi. Kakashi destroyed both with one swipe and blocked the original's kick with one hand. Naruto bent backwards and, still hanging from Kakashi's grip, grabbed onto the Jonin's waist and pulled, resulting in Kakashi losing his balance and letting go of Naruto's leg in the process. They both flipped mid air and landed on their feet but Kakashi was quicker and grabbed onto Naruto's hands and forced him face first into the ground. And to add insult to injury, he sat on top of Naruto while he struggled to dismount the heavier ninja.

"Impressive. Just how many tricks and skills do you have hidden?" Kakashi asked.

"Pass us and you'll get to see first hand. Please get off."

Kakashi got off of him and helped him to his feet. "Who taught you tree walking?"

"Saw a team being instructed a long while ago and gave it a shot."

"Hmm. Come out you two and drop your weapons. Time's up."

Sasuke and Sakura appeared from behind trees, both stowing away their shuriken.

Naruto brushed the dirt off of himself and stood beside on the left with Sakura in the middle.

"You cooperated and were waiting for an opening to save your teammate even though this was every man for himself and- why am I doing this? You guys know what this was about. Pass." Kakashi said running a hand through his hair. What a hassle this turned out to be.

"Hn."

"Yes, dattebayo!"

"I did it!"

' _More like Naruto carried both of you onto this team… both of them need to change.'_ Kakashi inwardly thought. Indeed, Naruto did the most planning and work and got both Sasuke and Sakura to pass the test. He still hadn't seen Sasuke's or Sakura's skills in combat, and he didn't have any knowledge on them other than reports from the Academy, but he wondered how much those were worth, seeing how much skill Naruto had in tactics, combat and mind games.

"We'll meet at the same spot tomorrow for training and the day after we'll have our first mission as Team 7. Go home and rest up, my cute little genin."

And so Naruto accomplished one more of his objectives and earned respect from his team, whether or not they would admit it.

* * *

A/N: Poll is up. Please check it out. If you don't vote, I'll- I'll do something! Eh who am I kidding PLEEEASE VOTE.


	5. Meet the Demon

**As Time Passes…..**

Naruto reflected on what he had accomplished over the past month. He'd been refining his taijutsu with Kakashi whenever he got the chance. He'd studied the basics of Futon and had begun to practice cutting leaves and manipulating his chakra to enhance his kunais' sharpness, also with Kakashi's guidance.

"Looks like there's more to you than smut and excuses sensei."

"I may be lazy, but I will teach you what you need to know if I can." Kakashi said, not sounding in the least offended. "Has anyone told you that a your chakra contro-"

"They have. It's better than what it was a year ago however."

"Well can't really blame you, you seem to have pretty big reserves for a genin."

Naruto understood that this was Kakashi's way of giving him a reason for his hard time controlling chakra. This was most likely an attempt to give him a reason for his difficulties with chakra control so he wouldn't snoop around until the Third tells him of the events that occurred on his birthdate. Speaking of chakra control, he had finally managed to make a living Bunshin the day before. It couldn't walk or do anything useful, but it was a sign that his chakra control had come a long way.

"By the way Naruto," Kakashi began. "What do you think of Sakura?"

Naruto was slightly taken aback with this question and the shuriken he was channeling Futon chakra into shot out of his hand into the sky.

' _...Lets hope that doesn't hit anyone.'_ thought Kakashi, sweatdropping.

"What kind of question is that? She's a teammate! Just a teammate!"

"Oh? I was simply asking for your opinion on her skills and growth as a kunoichi. But it seems I've gotten some very interesting information instead.. I never even suspected you to have such feelings towards her."

"Whatever! What do you mean by my opinion? On what?"

"Well doesn't she seem like she's more interested in guys and fantasies than real shinobi work? As her teammate and friend it'd be helpful if you could somehow motivate her."

Naruto thought about this. It was true, at this moment he and Sasuke were far ahead of Sakura in terms of skills but the most troubling part was the pathetic speed at which she was improving. "How? We don't really talk much. I have no idea how to talk to girls-"

Naruto could swear he had heard Kakashi giggle but chose not to mention it.

"Well as your sensei I could offer you some tips-"

Naruto laughed this time.

"Fine, don't take the tips. Just ask her to join you when you train and help her along. All I can make her do is focus in team training and assign tasks, but she'd stop as soon as the task is over. By getting you to train with her she'll hopefully try to get to your level."

"I'll try sensei. Hey, I think I'm doing it right this time."

The shuriken in his hand had a slightly translucent aura around it.

"Hmm, its a start. It should have sharp edges, not distorted ones like yours, but its a start. Try throwing it at a dummy."

The shuriken pierced the bullseye but continued to spin even after impact and pierced right through the dummy.

"That could probably cut through low quality metal. That's it for today, keep practicing."

"Sure sensei."

However, not everything was going great since the team had yet to go on real missions. They'd been stuck with D-rank chores ever since they formed the team. So when he asked for a more difficult mission from the Third, he was surprised to see the man he remembered from his dreams, Tazuna walk in. He'd forgotten the day he asked Hiruzen for the mission in his dream, but by sheer luck he'd ended up asking him on the very same day.

Now, he and his team were travelling to the Land of Waves for their first C-rank mission. He noticed the puddle that actually was the hiding place of two enemy ninja. He tensed when he heard the rattle of chains from behind and quickly slipped a kunai into his hand and turned to see Kakashi, with his eye wide, bound in a deadly sharp looking chain.

"One down." and the two enemy nin pulled.

Even though he noticed the wood on the ground from Kakashi's substitution, he still couldn't help but shiver. Real combat with real enemies, the feeling was completely different from anything he'd felt to that point. He did not doubt his skills, he could probably take both of them with his techniques, but experience also mattered a great deal. He was almost caught off guard when they appeared at his sides, ready to tear him up like they assumed they did Kakashi.

Before they could wrap him in chains, he concentrated his chakra into the kunai in his hand and threw it at the raised chain. The kunai sliced through the chain due the sharpness of the Wind chakra coating it.

The Demon Brothers had shocked looks and failed to react when Sasuke jumped between them and kicked them away. He then glanced at the kunai and back to Naruto, obviously trying to work out how the kunai had so easily cut through the chain.

"How?"

"Futon chakra coating the blade, even though my chakra channeling sucked, that chain was softer than butter in comparison."

The Demon Brothers had regained their composure by then and made a mad dash towards Tazuna where Naruto intercepted them, standing between the builder and the rogue nin. They both slashed downwards at Naruto who managed to deflect the attacks with kunai, but one of the claws left a scrape along his hand. Sasuke once again rushed to his side and brought out his own kunai. They exchanged blows, Naruto studying their skills and preparing a strategy. He made two clones and was about to rush the brothers when Kakashi decided to make his appearance.

"…What a showoff." grumbled Sasuke.

"Tell me about it." sighed Naruto.

"Kakashi sensei!" Sakura was the only one surprised.

Kakashi knocked both brothers out within seconds and had them tied to a tree.

"Took you long enough, sensei." Naruto said, feeling slightly dizzy.

"Try not to move too much, you've been poisoned by their claws. It was only a scrape so it shouldn't do much, but I recommend-"

Naruto stabbed into his hand and spilled the poisoned blood before bringing out a small medical kit from his supplies.

"Or you could do that." Kakashi said in a flat tone before turning towards the tied up ninja. "These are Mist-nin, notorious for getting the mission done through all means. I was trying to figure out who these two were after, us or our client."

Tazuna audibly gulped.

Kakashi turned to the bridge builder with a sharp look. "What are you hiding from us?"

Tazuna recounted his story about how Gato, the extremely rich shipping magnate had taken control of Wave's trade and was sucking it dry and how his bridge would save his country by opening up more ways for his country to trade. They were about to turn back and return to the village but Tazuna played the 'my poor daughter and grandson' card and they had to agree to help out.

"This is now a B-rank at the least and could possibly become more difficult. Be on your guard." Kakashi warned his team.

Sakura looked worried. She wasn't all that comfortable leaving Konoha in the first place. She wasn't as strong as Sasuke and lately Naruto's skills had been improving at an almost alarming rate and she was feeling pretty small. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"What's up? You seem distracted." said Naruto.

"N-nothing at all, I was just thinking about the mission."

"Well don't zone out, more ninja may show up soo-" he stopped mid sentence and threw to kunai at a bush to the side. He sent a clone to check. "It's just an animal. A white rabbit."

"Get down!" Kakashi yelled. An enormous sword flew over where their heads had just been and struck a tree. As soon as Naruto said the word 'white' Kakashi had known what was going on. Naruto quickly released his weights in one fluid movement and prepared himself to fight. That sword's size wasn't just for intimidation purposes, it looked incredibly sharp and well made, and standing on its hilt was none other than-

"The Demon of The Hidden Mist. Momochi Zabuza." said Kakashi.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan. The man said to have copied over a thousand jutsu." said Zabuza.

"Stay out of this fight." Kakashi ordered the rest of Team 7. "That's all the teamwork for this one. Guard Tazuna."

Naruto felt like arguing but held his silence. The men in front of him had been through hell to get to where they were. He would just get in the way if he interfered.

"I need to kill that old man, but it seems I'll need to kill you first."

Zabuza jumped backwards onto the river.

"He's standing on top of the water!" shrieked Sakura.

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist no Jutsu." said Zabuza.

Suddenly the mist surrounding them became incredibly thick and it became extremely difficult to see. An incredibly heavy pressure was felt by the three genin of Team 7.

"8 choices... liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, jugular, brain, kidneys and heart... which should I go for?"

Naruto was shivering. It would be very easy to mistake this for fear, but he realized it was pure presence that made him feel this weak.

"Sasuke." Naruto hadn't noticed that his teammate had frozen up under the effects of Zabuza's presence. "Don't worry, I don't let my comrades die on me." Kakashi said with a smile, looking slightly back at Sasuke.

"We'll see about that, won't we?" Zabuza said from in the middle of the Manji formation the genin had been in.

Kakashi rushed in, already expecting this, and stabbed Zabuza with a kunai, only for Zabuza to burst into a puddle.

"Behind you!" Naruto screamed. Before Kakashi could turn to block, Zabuza's sword had cut him cleanly in half. The two halves of Kakashi's body also burst into water and Kakashi appeared from behind Zabuza, holding a kunai at the surprised missing-nin's throat.

"It's over!"

* * *

 **Um, hi. I've been terribly ill for the last week and am slightly better now. I apologize for any errors since my head hurts and I can't check for note than 4 minutes.**

 **Zabuza will most likely survive, but not as a Leaf-nin. I might kill him off if i feel like it however. Meh, depends on my whim.**

 **Review, and if you have any questions feel free to PM me.**

 **The next chap should be out within a week. I never abandon any project, so don't worry about that. I might write a NaruTen story with a slightly darker plot, just to occupy my free time.**

 **FiB signing out.**


	6. Opposing Tyranny

**Opposing Tyranny**

"It's over!" declared Kakashi, his kunai at Zabuza's throat.

"A water clone!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Sensei, look out! That's a clone too!" Naruto screamed. He remembered what happened from his dream, it was exceptionally an exceptionally frightening moment.

Kakashi's eye's widened just as the clone in front of him started to turn into water. He leapt away and stood on the water just as the real Zabuza appeared where he was standing mere milliseconds before.

"How'd you know that Naruto?" asked Sakura. Sasuke looked at him with narrowed eyes as well. There hadn't been any indication that the Zabuza in front of Kakashi was a clone.

"Zabuza must have taken precautions for the Sharingan. A ninja like him would expect Kakashi-sensei to copy his jutsu. That's why he sent another clone from where sensei wouldn't be able to copy him." Naruto lied. He was impressed with himself. Didn't even blink. Sasuke and Sakura seemed satisfied with this made up explanation.

"Smart kid you have there Kakashi." Zabuza remarked. "Might become a great ninja, if he makes it out of this alive, that is."

And with that, Zabuza began making handseals at a pace none of the genin could begin to follow. Looking at Kakashi, they saw he was also making handseals at the same pace.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" they both called out at the same moment.

Two enormous bodies of water, shaped like roaring dragons, collided between the two jonin.

'Goddamn eye is-' Zabuza thought.

"Driving me crazy! Right?" said Kakashi.

Zabuza's eyes widened. How did he know? What Zabuza himself didn't realize was that he'd been caught in Kakashi's genjutsu. Zabuza merely thought Kakashi was completing his thoughts, while in reality Kakashi wasn't saying anything.

Trying to compose himself, Zabuza began going through a new set of handseals. He saw himself doing the same handseals behind Kakashi, and realized that Kakashi was completing the handseals faster, even though he was the one Kakashi was copying.

The Water Style jutsu slammed into Zabuza and Kakashi appeared before him.

"Can you see the future?" he gasped.

"Yes." Kakashi said. "You die."

But before the kunai could stab Zabuza, senbon flew and pierced through Zabuza's neck. A moment later a masked ninja about Naruto's height appeared beside Zabuza's prone form.

"I've been looking for him for a long time. Thank you for making my job easier. I'll take it from here."

"Sure." Kakashi said.

The boy crouched down, grabbed onto Zabuza and flickered out of sight.

Kakashi kept his eyes on where the Hunter-nin had been for a few seconds before covering his Sharingan and turning around.

"Good job, team. Nice work Naruto. Even I didn't think that Zabuza would use another clone."

Team 7 looked extremely pleased with themselves.

"Unfortunately," Kakashi added. "Zabuza is still alive."

Team 7 froze. He was alive? What did Kakashi mean?

"Hunter-nin are supposed to dispose of the body at the place they find it. That kid was possibly an accomplice of Zabuza's."

"Why didn't you stop them?" Sakura asked. "The boy was no older than us." she gestured to the genin of Team 7.

Kakashi remained silent. "That kid…. would've killed me if I fought him in my present condition."

The three of them looked at Kakashi in disbelief.

"I haven't had actual combat in some time. I'm rusty, and I'm not exactly a skilled Sharingan user. This eye here, just by being used, eats up my chakra faster than using any jutsu would. I have horrible control over it for that reason."

In fact, if Zabuza had managed to draw out the fight for much longer, Kakashi would probably have had to spend days in bed due to chakra exhaustion.

"Isn't there a way to turn it off? I've seen Hyuugas activate and deactivate their dojutsu at will, so can't you?" Naruto asked.

"This Sharingan isn't mine. Nothing can be done."

Sasuke was looking at Kakashi with a strange expression, it was a mixture of disbelief, curiosity and irritation.

"I did not steal this eye, if that's what you're suspecting."

Sasuke looked away quickly. "Hmph."

"Anyway, we begin training tomorrow. Since Zabuza has this little assistant, you three will need to participate in actual combat."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. He knew that Kakashi would plan to teach them chakra control basics, but what would change now that Kakashi knew he already had the skills?

-Next Day-

"-except Naruto." said Kakashi, after explaining tree climbing to Sakura and Sasuke.

"Why doesn't he have to do this?" Sasuke asked, visibly annoyed that Sakura was doing the exercise with ease and the fact that Naruto didn't have to even participate.

"He already knows this, so he'll be doing something else. We need to get as strong as we can before Zabuza attacks."

Naruto hadn't gone to the field to meet Haku this time. He remained composed through Inari's rant since he thought it wouldn't be professional to pay any attention to a little kid's whines. He'd prove his worth through actions.

Kakashi had told him that he'd get some different training since he was ahead of his teammates. He was also told that he might have to face off against Zabuza's ally.

"You'll need to be careful. He must've gotten the hunter-nin equipment from someone. And equipment like that cannot be bought."

He left Naruto to do the math. So that kid over there may or may not be on par with the Mist's hunter-nin. Great.

"So what do I do? I can't possibly reach that level in a few days, we need a plan."

"That's right. We need to protect Tazuna's family and himself in two different places. We can rest assured that Zabuza won't waste time going after Tsunami and Inari, so I'll have to stay close to Tazuna. Now with my skills, I'm pretty sure I put Zabuza down for quite some time. But if he has any decent medics, it'll take him a week tops to get back in action. And Naruto, Zabuza and I in our last fight wasn't even using 70% of what we can do. I had you guys and the old man to guard and he was probably wary of my Sharingan. Now he knows what I'm capable of and he'll go all out. I need you to get as strong as you can within this week so I can do the same. I'll teach you the basics of sensing presences."

"That's the big plan?"

"It's half. All this training is comprised of his sending pulses of chakra through the ground and sensing living things in the general area. It's harder than it sounds, but with your Shadow Clones you can probably pull it off faster than anyone in the Elemental Nations. You and I will work on your taijutsu in the meantime. I'll send a clone to observe the others' progress."

"How come they aren't getting this training? It doesn't feel right to get all this training alone, sensei." Naruto protested.

Kakashi looked and Naruto and chuckled. "People who can do the most get the most responsibility. This training isn't a gift or special treatment. Its your duty. You can and are willing to whatever it takes to protect everyone precious, so this is your burden."

Naruto understood. It wasn't because of favoritism, it was because he was the only one who could pull this off.

"Fine."

Kakashi smiled. "Now put your finger on the ground and try to pulse chakra through it. Imagine it being similar to ripples on the surface of water which break if they come into contact with anything."

Naruto did. He closed his eyes in concentration.

"Try to sense where my clone is gonna hit you from."

"Wha-?"

"A Thousand Years of Death!"

Naruto was very unhappy.


	7. Before the Storm

**Bo-staff and Zanbato tied. I, not being able to pick between two awesome as hell weapons, flipped a coin! Genius, no? No? K.**

 **Bo-staff won and so no matter how friggin awesome it would've been to see Naruto using a zanbato made of chakra metal and channeling Kyuubi's chakra through it, he'll be using a Bo-staff to bash skulls in instead. So here's the part where you- yes YOU!- come in. I already have a few ideas of how to his chakra will affect his strikes with the staff, but I want creative- BUT NOT UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS- suggestions from the readers. Thanks.**

"You better watch your back, you horny, shameless-"

"What colorful language! I don't remember teaching you behavior like that." Kakashi said with an air of mock disappointment. "But did you feel anything when you pulsed chakra through the ground?"

"Don't think you can escape me when the time comes, sensei. And yeah, I felt a sort of heaviness around me. Heavy isn't actually the right word but-"

"That would be natural chakra. It's dense here because there's more life here. Your job, Naruto, is to detect stuff through the thick layer of natural chakra. It's easier in barren areas since there's almost no life there, and so there's no 'interference'. Natural born sensors, however, don't even need to train. They can basically sense through normal areas. Their pulses happen naturally once they reach a certain age and all they need to do is learn to focus on that, while normal ninja often spend years trying to master this."

"So I can learn this since I can multiply battle experience using clones? Is that why I'm being taught this?"

"Yes. Remember, taijutsu is what we will mainly focus on. And don't make more than fifty clones."

"Fifty? I can make hundreds! It'll be inefficient if I do just fifty."

Kakashi stayed silent for a while. He seemed to be thinking about something.

"Doing hundreds wouldn't actually be that good… you need to sense thing's with chakra and too many targets will only slow you down. Have one clone do the sensing. Whenever it locates one, have the the discovered clone dispel. Understand?" Kakashi left the bit about his fear of the Nine-Tails taking over Naruto if his chakra went too low. This training would frustrate Naruto most likely, and he didn't want the Nine-Tails messing with Naruto when he's tired and poorly defended.

"Sounds logical."

With the clones made, Kakashi and Naruto proceeded to train in taijutsu, with Kakashi holding back less and showing Naruto his faults very clearly. By hitting him where his guard was down. Due to having a lack of resources and partners, Naruto did not have the same experience clan children did and so he was not as well versed in real combat. But he learned fast. By the end of the day, Kakashi could say Naruto's skill in unarmed combat was leaps and bounds better than before. However, his progress with sensing was very slow. He had located only one clone at days end, but Kakashi told him that this was nothing to be disappointed of, as most people gave up sensory training because of how much time it took to develop the skill for combat.

That night Naruto returned to Tazuna's house after he thought he'd trained enough, tired and weary. He found the rest of the occupants of the house settling down for dinner. Sasuke had bruises over his body and his clothes had dirt marks all over, no doubt from falling off of the tree he was supposed to climb. Sakura, however, looked undamaged without a single scratch on her.

"How come you look so filthy and she's spotless?" Naruto asked them.

"Apparently the less chakra you have, the easier it is to control. Sasuke has more than I do so he had a hard time." Sakura answered. "Kakashi sensei said you already knew the exercise so they'd work on your taijutsu."

Kakashi hadn't told them about sensory. "Yeah. He said my taijutsu was average and so I needed to work on that. Can't always depend on Shadow Clones."

"Whatever. At least you don't have dirt all over your clothes, dobe."

"You didn't have to spend the day getting your ass kicked by sensei, teme."

"Okay, stop fighting you two." came Kakashi's voice from the hall. "Wash your hands and settle down like good little children. Off you go."

All three of them sent him dirty looks for his comment.

"Sensei, any idea where Zabuza might be? Can't we send clones to look for him?" Naruto asked.

"He'll just destroy the clones and relocate. Our best bet is to be prepared when he comes."

"Why is he letting a bastard like Gato order him around? He must have better ways of getting money, so become a thug for hire?"

Kakashi contemplated for a moment before answering "He's a rogue ninja, but he's also one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Kiri has its own force dedicated to exclusively hunt defected shinobi, they are the hunter-nin. Him being a Swordsman and wielding the Kubikiribocho means the hunter-nin give him more priority than your average ninja. Most likely this is why he's become desperate to earn money like this. Working for Gato means he gets to keep a low profile and evade hunter-nin."

"But if he's so important, wouldn't Kiri take him back if he returned?" Sakura asked.

"We can't assume that he defected for some small reason. He might've committed a horrible crime, he could've killed someone important, there are lots of possibilities."

Sasuke's face seemed to harden at this fact. His hands clenched into fists and shook for a moment. Kakashi looked at him and frowned, he was obviously thinking about Itachi.

Naruto seemed to ponder on what Kakashi said a while longer, but before he could ask more questions, Tsunami served dinner and they thanked her for the food and proceeded to eat.

At week's end Naruto had great progress in his chakra control thanks to sensory training with his clones and could sense things with sizable amounts of chakra with some focus. He had also started to train in taijutsu with Sasuke and Sakura as Kakashi thought that fighting the same opponent for a week would harm his skills in adapting to different opponents, and it would be training for the whole team by using Naruto's clones.

They were ready for Zabuza Momochi.

"Leave two clones with Tsunami and Inari, in case they come for 'insurance'."

Two clones appeared beside Naruto.

"Good. Lets go, we have a Swordsman waiting for us. We don't want to be impolite."

Unbeknownst to Kakashi or the others, Naruto had a plan. A plan that would possibly put him in Kiri's good graces. He would return their Swordsman, dead or alive.


	8. Demon's Fate, Wave's Hope

**Demon's Fate, Wave's Hope**

"This is pretty unusual. We've been here for quite some time, but there's been no sign of Zabuza or that hunter-nin." Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head.

"Maybe he's scared of me. No wait, he MUST be scared of me, that's the only logical explanation." Naruto said, grinning.

"Stop joking. This is pretty weird, maybe his injuries still haven't healed yet?" Sakura said.

"No. Those injuries wouldn't keep an experienced shinobi out of commission for so long. He either broke off the deal with Gato or maybe he's here planning something." Sasuke said.

"Well, he definitely isn't here. My ninken don't smell anything unusual around, and neither did Naruto's clones." the only thing that caught Kakashi's eye was the small satisfied smirk on Naruto's face. It seemed like he believed Zabuza _was_ absent in fear of him. He sighed, he was a genin, it was to be expected that he would have some delusions.

Something flew at incredible speed at Naruto. He caught it with both hands. There in his grasp was the head of a stout little man, an expression of terror frozen on his bloodstained face, his tears had not even dried yet.

"...That's Gato's head." Kakashi said, looking at the person who threw it. There, completely healed of his injuries, was Zabuza Momochi and his accomplice standing in the mist. Before Kakashi could do anything, the mist enveloped the two of them and they faded without a trace.

"...I don't understand." Kakashi was dumbfounded. What on earth had happened.

Naruto threw away the severed head, his hands shaking. Even though he had prepared for bloodshed, the actual thing had far more impact. He fell to his knees shivering. The head was freshly severed, he could feel the blood on his hands. He steeled himself.

His plan had succeeded.

-Three Days Ago-

A young girl, around thirteen years of age, was returning to a cave with a basket of flowers. Upon entering she dropped the basket and drew her senbon needles, ready to fight. The reason for her reaction was a blond boy around her age casually leaning on the wall opposite to where her master lay.

"Stand down, Haku. This kid is just a clone. He says Gato intends to betray us at the bridge. I want you to go and see if this is true."

"But master-"

"Go! This kid can't do anything to me, even if I'm injured."

With a stiff nod the girl left. When she was out of earshot, the man sighed. "So you're here to tell me that instead of living as a nuke-nin, I should consider joining up with the rebel faction of Kiri? You've got balls to come here and think you can boss me around. I don't give a fuck if Gato's trying to screw me over. I'll slice his head off, just like I can do yours."

Naruto shrugged. "You're gonna end up dead one way or another. Resist at the bridge three days later and I'll kill you." Zabuza gave him a sharp look. Naruto smirked. "Even if you win, and I'm not saying you will, the hunter-nin will have your head sooner or later. It's better to join the rebels and avoid that, right?"

"They have a very small chance of winning that war."

"Then you should do everything you can to make sure they win, shouldn't you?"

"What exactly do you get out of this? Why are you being so helpful? We're supposed to be enemies!"

"I have plans. Big plans. Having a Swordsman such as yourself in my debt as backup sounds nice. And admit it, scruffy, you care about that tool of yours. You can try to act as heartless as you want, but you want to repent. So I'm giving you a possible way to get out of this mess you've made. It won't be making up for all the shit you did. But it's a way to do some good and give that girl a life. Who knows what following a useless thug like you around has done to her."

"You know, for a greenhorn you seem pretty full of yourself." Zabuza appeared before Naruto with his Kubikiribocho at the blonde's neck in an instant. "I don't even need to be at 50% to take you out. In fact, I think the only reason you're acting this smug is because you're a clo-"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed yet."

Right in front of Zabuza's stomach was a kunai, cold and sharp. He felt two more kunai at his back. The clone he had 'cornered' had drawn a kunai and aimed at his gut in the time he appeared before him, and he had more clones as backup. Zabuza hadn't even noticed.

"I'm no fool, Momochi. I'm here to give you advice, take it and live or refuse and die. I could kill you right now. I could have that girl killed right now. It doesn't matter whether she's the last Yuki or not. She won't survive if I decide to end her. Make enough clones and you'll end up with civilian level chakra in each, she'll never see it coming. I hope we can be allies, make a wise choice, Zabuza."

"How did you know she was the last Yuki? Who the fuck are you?"

Naruto smirked. "I hope you live to find out, Zabuza."

-Present—

Naruto felt hands on his back. It was Sakura, she had gotten over her initial shock.

"Get up. It's just a head." she said, even though her voice betrayed her strong act.

Naruto saw Sasuke look just as surprised, but his face lacked the terror one would expect at seeing a severed head. The massacre had had a frightening effect on him, it seemed.

"Let's get back. Zabuza isn't coming back, he has no reason to. We'll go back to Konoha after this bridge is over."

The genin silently nodded.

-Another week later—

"I think it should be called the Great Tazu-"

"Name it The Hope of Wave." Naruto said, looking at Inari. "Proof that even a mere bridge-builder can be a country's hero."

Inari looked like he was going to cry, Naruto patted him on the head.

Kakashi smiled at Naruto. "That name sounds great, but we really need to get going."

"If you ever feel like it, you're welcome to come visit!" Tsunami called. Her son Inari finally seemed to be moving on from his depressed state. It'd take time, but it would happen.

"Sure, but it's time to go." Naruto said, as they began walking across The Hope of Wave.

-Wave Arc End—


	9. Meet the Master!

**A** **/N:** **Smells like fillers...**

 **The transition to the Chunin Exam Arc officially begins with this chapter. There will be additions to Naruto's skillset, there will be interactions with other characters and I'll TRY to show you a what** _ **the inside of Naruto's mind**_ **looks like. Was that a hint? Who knows? Heh.**

 **All this will happen over the next few chapters, I'll try to get to the Chunin Exam Arc ASAP, with as few chapters as possible in between, but I can't promise anything just yet. R &R!**

* * *

 **Meet the Master!**

"I think we could probably spend some more time away from the Leaf, I'm sure the Old Man wouldn't mind." Naruto said, a bit pale. Sasuke and Sakura were in the same boat. They'd gone on a trip to Wave and faced off against a Swordsman of the Mist, the Hokage would flip out at their recklessness.

Kakashi seemed to consider the option for a second, after all they had, in all likelihood, an angry Hokage waiting for them. "Better now than later."

"Okay..."

As they passed the gate, Izumo and Kotetsu gave them sad looks. Like they were lambs walking towards their own slaughter.

Once they arrived in front of the door of the Hokage office, it opened by itself. Behind the desk, with a blank expression and his hands folded in front of his face, was Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Mission Report." he said.

Team 7 flinched at his icy tone. Kakashi stepped forward and gave his report, with an unblinking Hokage staring at him.

"Sounds like you had a fun time in Wave. Tell me, did Zabuza Momochi seem like a common thug to you, Kakashi?" the Hokage released his hands and Team 7 felt an unimaginable pressure pushing down on them. The air seemed to become too thick to breathe, Zabuza's aura was nothing compared to what the Third Hokage was exerting on them.

"W-we did come back without facing much danger. He had a disagreement-" Kakashi said.

"And _you_ had a mere stroke of luck. This mission never happened. You did not face Zabuza Momochi, and if any of you even breathe out what may have happened, there will be consequences. I will not allow the other genin teams to hear of this and I will not tolerate such attitude, you acted like rogue ninja and I, while proud of your achievement, feel extremely disappointed with your conduct. So, am I clear?"

"Yes, Lord Hokage." Team 7 said in unsion, still strained by the pressure.

"Everyone on your team will recieve C-rank pay, as your mission was C-ranked. Think of this as a punishment for going off on a mission far above anything a genin squad should handle. Have you forgotten that you are shinobi and not vigilantes?"

If that moron Tazuna had simply told me what the conditions in Wave were, I'd have sent some capable jonin to handle that mess, but no, he has to lie and he was lucky enough to hire you fools who, instead of returning immediately, proceeded to go off on a dangerous quest to save a country. What were you thinking, obeying a builder before your Hokage?"

"On behalf of my team, I apologise Lord Third. We simply got caught up and felt compelled to help the helpless people of Wave. It will never happen again." Kakashi said, bowing.

4 fat envelopes flew through the air and landed in the hands of every member of Team 7.

"That is your pay. Any extra money you may have found is no concern of mine nor of anybody else's." Hiruzen released the pressure and gasps could be heard from the walls, even the ANBU couldn't handle the raw power the veteran shinobi had radiated. "But let me say this, if I ever see any of you four doing anything similar again the consequences will be dire. Leave."

Naruto looked at the envelope. Easily A-rank pay.

He couldn't say why he got it to anyone. Damn.

He saw Sasuke smiling smugly and Sakura grinning madly at their respective envelopes, and he could swear he heard Kakashi mutter "Platinum Edition".

-The Next Day-

He had the week off. Kakashi had said they needed some time off after that last adventure so there would be no work or training for them, but Naruto felt restless when he didn't train everyday. The sun was just beginning to rise when he closed his apartment door and began to jog to his usual training field.

"Naruto!" came a voice from the side. It was Ino Yamanaka, she was looking down at him from her window. Naruto came to a halt.

"Hey there, how come you're up so early?" he asked.

"I was helping my dad set up the flower shop, we have new flowers in stock. What about you, how come you're up so early?"

"I'm just heading to the training field. You know, to train."

"Can I tag along sometime? I need a good training partner, my teammates are lazy bums."

"...zzz...Troublesome..."

"...*snort*...I'm just chub-zzz..."

"Sure. I'll stop by sime other time."

Naruto waved and was on his way again. Just then he remembered something important. He'd been having thoughts about getting a weapon ever since Kakashi's fight with Zabuza. He broke into a sprint and within moments he was at the Hokage Tower. He feared he might be too early, but he walked in anyway. The secretary nodded and he entered the office.

"Naruto? This is a surprise, come to visit this old man?"

Naruto straightened himself and formed the words in his mouth. "Lord Third, I was hoping you could help me with... a wish of mine."

Hiruzen Sarutobi dropped his smile. "Did something happen? Naruto, what's wrong?"

"What? Why would anything be wrong?"

Hiruzen frowned. "Well, either you're not Naruto, or you're here hoping I'll say yes to your unreasonable request. Let's hear it."

Naruto grinned. "I was wondering, er, I wanted to know if you knew a way for me to learn Bojutsu."

Hiruzen sat there, frozen in place, across from Naruto. He had a blank look on his face.

"Um, Old Man?"

"Bojutsu? Interesting. I'd teach you myself, but I have my duties as Hokage."

"Figured that'd be the case-"

"However, I have a way for you to learn Bojutsu from a master greater than I. Do you have a staff bought? No? No matter, I have some you could use to train." Hiruzen had actually been waiting for somebody to ask him for bojutsu lessons but unfortunately none of his three students nor any ninja close to him seemed to find the staff that interesting, and he feared he'd be unable to pass his knowledge on. Now, he had the best opportunity to pass it on, and that too to his successor's son.

Naruto was was surprised. A better master than Hiruzen Sarutobi? The Professor? "So who's this master who you say is better than you? As far as I know, you're the best at it in Konoha, so-"

Hiruzen chuckled. "I may be the best at bojutsu, but the person I have in mind has a far better grasp than I ever will in regards to handling the staff. You'll be meeting him soon, so don't worry about that."

"Can I at least get the name of this 'master'?"

"Hmm... okay, I see no harm in that. He's called Enma."

Naruto racked his brains. He never heard of any shinobi of the Leaf by that who was that good with the staff. If he was as good as the Hokage said, he should be incredibly popular, yet he hadn't the slightest idea who this Enma was.

"...Okay."

"Hold on." Sarutobi bit his thumb, made some hand signs and the famed Adamantine Staff appeared in his hands.

"Jiji! I couldn't possibly acce-"

"I'm not giving it to you."

"Ah. Hehe."

"Catch.", and the staff was tossed into Naruto's arms.

Naruto was almost floored by the weight. This artifact was easily one of the heaviest things he ever held. It just went to show how deceptively strong the old man behind the desk actually was, to use it with such grace, as if it weighed next to nothing. He was struggling to stand, the staff was so heavy.

"Hm. Not bad, for a genin. Greet your bojutsu instructor."

"Wh-what? Where?"

"In your hands." came a voice from the staff. There was a burst of smoke, and in front of Naruto stood an impressive monkey, with a roughly humanoid body covered mostly in long white hair, wearing vintage shinobi attire and a Leaf forehead protector.

"I am called Monkey King Enma, personal summon of Hiruzen Sarutobi. People know me better in my transfored state but this is how I actually look. You have potential, Uzumaki. I will enjoy teaching you."

Naruto was shocked. What were the odds of learning bojutsu from... a living Bostaff? He collected himself and thought of how to respond. He bowed.

"It's an honour to learn from the Monkey King himself. I will be in your care."

The monkey laughed in a deep booming voice. "I like him already, Hiruzen. Do you want to start right away? Or are you too tired?"

"I'm ready when you are, Enma-sensei."

"Enma-sensei? I like the sound of that. Let's go." and with that Enma grabbed Naruto's shoulder and flickered out of the office. Hituzen smiled, Naruto was growing at a very impressive rate.

 **-Training Field-**

"To start training with the Bostaff, you'll need one for beginners. I have a wooden one here, perfect for training. I'll be teaching you the different katas, reflexes, and we'll focus on improving your efficiency in using your muscles all the time for the duration of your training. You see how Hiruzen uses me with ease even at his age? You don't need to have large muscles to be strong, you need to know how to best use what you have.

Normal bostaffs won't last actual shinobi combat, so we'll have a metal staff made for you. I heard you could make Shadow Clones without suffering at your age?"

"Yes, sensei."

"Make thirty. We'll speed up the kata training so we can begin to focus on your body, it needs to be stronger. Now!"

"Yes, sensei!"

* * *

 **Just because I made Haku a girl doesn't mean she's a focus in this story romantically. I may split the story and rewrite it with a different ending and different pairings. Whatever I feel like.**

 **And it feels right. Lol. Prepare yourselves, there may be more random irrelevant changes.**


	10. Alliance

**I've been very busy, but I will still apologize for my unyouthful lateness. Sorry ;-;.**

 **I've figured out how I'm going to go about the fillers, thanks to** **Merchant of Blue Death** **'s amazing advice on structuring and writing chapters, and** **Guilt of Swords** **, for helping me make the quality better. I am indebted to you both. Now, without further ado, let us begin.**

* * *

"Pitiful! Absolutely pitiful! If Hiruzen disrespected me the way you're doing that staff, I'd have killed him in his sleep a long time ago! Don't make so many unnecessary movements! You must be swift and you must be precise! You'll have your head rolling on the ground before you manage to swing the staff!"

"Swift and precise? With these weights on? Right." Naruto replied between grunts, only to be smacked on the back of his head.

"The Hokage possesses such strength that it makes me seem weightless! He has accomplished this through disciplined training, and I'll discipline you by any means I feel necessary. You won't survive if you are so slow to move." Enma knew how unreasonable he was being, but the child in front of him had monstrous potential. He learned slower than Hiruzen did, but he had a capacity that was unmatched and Enma believed that by pressuring him hard enough, his true strength would emerge. Naruto kept swinging the staff with great strength, if he hadn't been a jinchuriki, his body would have given out by now. Enma would test the very limits of Naruto's potential, he would teach him all he knew.

Finally, after a long while when Naruto's body did run out of energy, Enma lifted his limp body into his arms.

"He's not the prodigy you were, yet he is far better than you were at his age."

The Third Hokage walked into view from behind the tree under which Naruto was training.

"Don't you think you're pushing him too hard? It's good to see such progress, but he's only a child." asked Hiruzen, having observed Naruto's training for the past ten minutes.

"It would hardly have mattered. The boy would have continued to train regardless of whether or not I pushed him. He isn't gifted at all in the arts, it only seems that way. It's the amount of work he puts in, and his burning determination to be the best that made him this way."

Hiruzen nodded. "He knew I was here. He was sending out pulses while training."

Enma laughed. "I noticed as well. His eyes kept darting around trying to locate you. He knew someone was here, I'm not sure if he realized it was you."

Hiruzen smiled. "Tell him to buy some clothes, the ones he's wearing are ruined. I'll pay for them. I'll give him the staff I had made for him when his training is over. Do you think he'll like it?"

"He'll be overjoyed. It's a fine staff. I'll drop him off at his apartment and return to my home." Enma waved and began leaping towards Naruto's apartment. Hiruzen looked at the Hokage Monument, at The Fourth's face.

'Your son will outshine us all, Minato. I'm actually hoping I live long enough to see him make his mark, as I know he will.'

-Next Day-

Naruto felt sore all over. His muscles ached so bad that he headed towards Ichiraku's for breakfast instead of making it himself!

"Ah, Naruto! How are you doing? I trust you haven't forgotten us already?" laughed Teuchi.

"Forget you? Yeah. Your ramen? Nope."

"Hmph, cheeky brat. What'll it be? The usual extra large bowl?"

"Larger. I feel like eating something unhealthy."

Teuchi began to work, chuckling. "You look tired, be sure to rest once in a while, after all, we're only human."

"I don't' know what you mean by 'only human'. I feel like my body's made of jelly."

Their conversation went on for a while, Ayame joined in after a few minutes, and after having his ramen Naruto left for the hot springs.

"Naruto! Are you here to train as well?" came an all too familiar voice.

'Please, let it be a bad dream. Please.'

Sadly, Rock Lee and Might Guy were both very real and weird, and both were soon standing in front of him.

"How youthful! Let us join you, Naruto, and together we shall burn in the flames of youth!"

"Guys, I'm tired. I've trained too much-" but he was not to be allowed to finish-

"Too much? That cannot be possible! It is more likely that you have not trained enough, and your body is feeling the lack of youthfulness!" exclaimed Lee.

Naruto was going to refuse but he realized that, as usual, his soreness was almost gone.

"Well, if you insist. Taijutsu only, as usual."

"You must not feel restricted! Feel free to hit me with everything you have!"

"….Only Taijutsu then."

-Two Hours of Youth Later-

Naruto sighed as he dipped into the spring. His aching muscles felt relieved as his body went under the water.

Enma's training was paying off, he had far less difficulty keeping up with Lee this time. Usually he'd spend most of the time defending against Lee's furious onslaught, rarely finding openings to strike back. This time, his body responded much better and he didn't get his ass kicked as much.

Lee was amazing. Even though he couldn't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, he absolutely outclassed Naruto and the rest of the active Genin in Taijutsu. Usually he'd simply spend his time running and dodging Lee, trying to fight against the weirdo's much superior speed only to fail, but this time when he took Lee's blows he didn't feel as much pain as he used to. He realized that Enma's training had strngthened his body. Lee realized this as well and began hitting harder, apparently he'd been holding back.

He lost, but there was progress! He'd take everything Enma could give him, he'd go through the harshest training if it meant he could surpass all the others. His dream, what events he could still remember from it, showed him his… flaws, he liked to call them. Wasting time as a kid, not studying, hopelessly chasing a girl who made wrong assumptions about him, being viewed weak by most of the others, not being able to protect people precious to him. The Old Man's death stood out in his mind. He thought of ways he could protect him, but measuring up to a Sannin? He thought of telling him some events from his dream, maybe he could prevent things from going so badly this time around. But there was no telling how the information he shared would affect the outcome. He would need to plan it carefully and he would do the only other thing he could do: he would hope for the best.

His thoughts shifted to the issue he'd been thinking about for the past week. How would he approach the Fox? He'd been screwed over so many times by so many different humans, he wouldn't trust him so easily. Naruto had a plan, however. He would gamble. Either he won and he earned the fox's trust, or he failed miserably and put the Fox further on guard. Those were the two most likely scenarios in his mind. What he did know for certain was that he'd have to meet him soon. He'd need his help, and help him come to terms with his hatred. He couldn't comprehend how much it must have hurt the immortal beast's pride to be toyed with by humans, how degrading and painful it must have been. The Fox was a someone with whom, if things went Naruto's way, he could talk about his vision and take advice from. After all, the Fox had been there during all of the clashes between Indra's and Asura's incarnates. He had a plan to, over time, calm the beast down.

He decided to try and meet him tomorrow. He left the springs and went home.

-Following Day-

He'd just gone through another session of training with Enma. He was dead tired, but that was good, he needed to be able to slip into unconsciousness easily.

"*huff* Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

The clones appeared and he felt wobbly, the amount of chakra he used was enormous. The clones began wasting chakra, turning into people he knew and making stupid imitations of them.

"To Hn or not to Hn, that is the question." was the last thing Naruto heard before he passed out.

-Unknown (lol no you know where)—

Deep grumbling noises came from in front of him.

"So… you finally show yourself."

The Nine-Tailed Fox approached from the shadows , standing tall, fangs bared and with his eyes staring directly at Naruto.

"Huh."

"Feeling insignificant? You should be! A mere mortal -especially one as pathetic as yourself- is little more than a gnat to me! You should feel honored boy, you are in the presence of-"

"Kurama, right?"

"Yes, Kurama the-" the Fox fell silent. "How? How do you know my name?"

Naruto simply stared back at the beast.

"How? ANSWER ME!"

'This is it.' Naruto thought.

"I know a lot about you. I had a dr- er- a vision, it's a long story. I'll need you to listen carefully and understand what I'm saying. It's time to move past your hatred. It's what the Sage of Six Paths would have wanted."

The fox growled. Naruto could feel the hostility radiating off of him. "You dare act mighty- you, a weak mortal? You have no power, yet you try to command me? You dare talk about the Sage's wishes? What could a foolish boy know?"

Naruto sat down. "I know a lot more than just your name. I know about the Sage of Six Paths'- his name was Hagoromo Otsutsuki, right?- fight against Kaguya, how he and his brother Homura fought what Kaguya became, the Juubi. I know about how you were created, I know how badly humans have treated you over the years. What do you want to hear about first? I am the latest incarnation of Asura."

The Fox stayed silent for a few moments, then spoke. "The Sage is dead. Indra and Asura's petty fight has nothing to do with me, and I refuse to play any part in it."

"I'm not here only for your power, Kurama, but it isn't for personal gain or for some battle. I am not Asura, simply the one who bears his will. I'm here to tell you that the world, the peace the Sage fought for is in danger. I think you're familiar with the name Madara Uchiha?"

As expected, Kurama began growling fiercely. "What. Does. He have to do with this?"

"Finally listening? He's the one threatening the world. He wants to capture you and the rest of the Tailed Beasts, put you back into the Gedo Mazo and revive the Juubi. After that he'll become it's jinchuuriki and open his third eye and cast a Genjutsu on the moon. You see where this is going?"

The Fox had his teeth bared, and was trembling in barely restrained anger. "Madara Uchiha…. How do I know you're telling the truth? He's mortal, he can't have lived this long…"

"I didn't expect you to trust me. I merely want your word that you will allow me to show you something, a memory of mine. I want to show you now before the details get messed up, it's a pretty long memory."

Kurama growled again. "What trickery are you planning?"

"No trickery, I simply want your word that you'll see the memory before deciding to kill me."

"If you aren't planning anything, why is he here?"

"Who?"

"Your fool of a father."

He heard footsteps from behind him. Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage of Konoha stepped into sight. "Hello, so- oof!"

Naruto had punched him. "Don't worry about this idiot. He's just some of my father's chakra, left here to repair the seal in case it was ever about to break."

"Ow. I'm sorry Naruto-" he broke off when he saw tears in Naruto's eyes.

"Weird." he said. "Isn't this my mind? How come my tears feel so real?"

Minato hugged his son. "I'm sorry son. I didn't have a choice. There was nobody else we could give this burden to, and it haunts me to this day, what I had to do. What I did do. I'm so sorry."

Naruto sniffed. "I understand dad, it's just that-" he choked. "I just wished you and mom were still-" Naruto broke into sobs.

Minato hugged him tighter. "We're both proud. No matter what, we couldn't have asked for a better son."

"We really couldn't have." said a female voice.

In front of Naruto appeared his mother. Kushina Uzumaki raised her arms, calling her son to her.

Breaking into wails, Naruto ran into his mother's arms. For a long while, everyone was silent, only the sounds of Naruto's sobs and Kushina's whispers could be heard. Finally Naruto calmed down, and stood up.

"So, what's the plan?" Kushina said, wiping his tears away.

Clearing his voice, hoarse from the crying, Naruto told his parents of all the events leading up the present time.

"This is very interesting, I've heard of visions, but this was your entire life? Interesting and strange, too."

"Maybe it was a Space-Time jutsu, with something like the Yamanaka's mind jutsu thingy involved?" Kushina offered.

Naruto laughed at his mother's choice of words.

"What's so funny, 'ttebane?" she said, her glare silencing him.

"Scary." he muttered.

"Don't I know." his father seconded.

"Ugh, you know what I was talking about. Couldn't it be something like that?"

"It could, but sending a consciousness across time? There would be no return."

A thought struck Naruto. "This was," he began. "a vision of my entire life. What if I sent it back during my dying moments?"

Kushina and Minato exchanged looks. "That's a very disturbing thought. A person being that dissatisfied with life, how miserable were you?" Kushina said.

"Hey! I didn't do anything yet!"

Minato chuckled. "No use thinking about this now. Your plan seems great to me, Naruto. But remember, your actions could always have unforeseen consequences, we're talking big consequences."

"I know dad. That's why I'm here for Kurama's help."

"Finally remember me, did you?" Kurama said in a haughty tone. Truthfully, he was taken aback when the child in front of him broke down at the sight of his parents. He hadn't anticipated this, and the scene had convinced him that the boy in front of him was, if nothing else, honest and straightforward with people he wanted to get to know. He couldn't be absolutely sure with just this, but maybe it wouldn't be a mistake to trust him…? Humans were mostly selfish and small-minded fools, but his father had trusted them. He had said a person would appear to show him what true strength was. It sounded like this boy was the one.

"Uh, sorry you had to see all that. So, you just heard all the things that happened, but if you still need to see the memory-"

"I have no wish," he growled, with his best superior voice. "to see the memories of a whelp. I'll trust you, boy. I don't feel dishonesty from you. I can sense when someone has bad intentions towards me, and now that I've somewhat calmed down, I can see that you have no such intentions either. But it will be difficult for me, I have been disgraced and hurt be humans uncountable times. If you ever try something like that, I won't be held responsible for my actions."

"Woah, mister fur-face has feewings?" Kushina mocked.

Kurama roared. "Silence, this is important! I will not be ridiculed!"

"Kushina! Apologize to the fur- um- Kurama." Minato said, causing Kushina to burst into laughter.

"Come on, you two. Kurama decided to trust us and you're just irritating him. Okay, I'm taking the seal off."

He could instantly sense a shift in all three of his mind's occupants attitudes. The 'air' became tense, and Naruto rolled his eyes as he walked to the cage and pulled the seal off.

"You two don't have to worry. He won't go back on his word, just like I don't on mine. You have my word, I will try my best and treat you with fairness. I hope you'll come to completely trust me someday."

Kurama huffed. The cage was down, the two chakra images couldn't hold him back even if they tried. He turned around and curled into a lying position.

"I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me."

Minato and Kushina relaxed a bit. "Well son, it seems you're in good hands."

"Well- good _paws_." Kushina added, and a growl made itself heard. "I think I'm almost out. I can't maintain this form for any longer. Mito Uzumaki did say the only way to tame the furball was using love. Looks like she was right." She crouched down and hugged Naruto, as did Minato.

"Much wiser than you, at least." Kurama said.

"What was that? Oh forget it, what a pain."

Minato ruffled Naruto's hair.

"We'll always be supporting you Naruto." he said. "Never forget, we'll always be proud of you."

"I won't." Naruto whispered. He felt sad, but there was a feeling in his chest. A hollowness he hadn't realized was ever there had been filled. "I love you."

They smiled as they faded. "We love you too. Forever."

* * *

 **R &R. I'll be editing past chapters pretty soon, quality has to improve asap**.


	11. Calm Before the Storm

**Hello. I have returned. I will never to abandon the story. I just have exams. I'm so tired.**

 **Next chapter is the Chunin Exam begininning, the fillers are over at last. This chapter contains character development for Sakura.**

 **Enough, let's delve.**

* * *

Team 7 had just finished their D-rank chore of the day.

"Hey guys," Naruto began. "I hear the Chunin exams are closing in, I'm pretty sure if we get strong enough Kakashi-sensei will let us enter."

Naruto could tell that Sakura was about to agree, but refrained. He realized that she did this because she didn't hear Sasuke say anything. He looked towards Sasuke to see the usual annoyed expression.

"Well, Sasuke? Want to train together?" Naruto offered.

Sasuke turned around. "I can't waste time with you. If the exams really are coming, I need to get stronger fast. I can't let you hold me back."

As he walked Sasuke walk away, Naruto felt pissed. Sasuke wasn't a known criminal yet, he hadn't met Orochimaru yet and he had not betrayed the village. But he was still a prick.

He realized, he could save Sasuke with just words and friendship like he had in his dream, but that would cost him a lot. If he was going to influence Sasuke, he would have to use the very thing Sasuke chased. Power. He felt a migraine coming along, he'd have to think about how to handle the Uchiha.

' _Just kill him, much simpler.'_

'I can, but he might have his uses in the future.'

' _Huh? What good could that lost cause-'_

'Remember how easily he was used by Tobi and the Akatsuki?'

' _Hmm? Wait, you aren't-'_

'Oh, but I am.'

'… _.Kekekekekekeke-'_

'Stop.'

' _*cough* Good idea. The little girl might find your silence strange. We'll continue this conversation later.'_

Clearing his head, Naruto turned to Sakura.

"Sakura? Wanna go train?"

Sakura had a distracted look on her face. No doubt Sasuke's words bothered her a whole lot more than they did him.

'She's still spaced out.'

' _Ah, young love.'_ Kurama was cackling. _'I can't believe you still have feelings for her.'_

'It's like her every decision is made around Sasuke's existence. And I'm not head over heels in love anymore. I just want her to do something better than love someone whose existence is- is-'

' _A waste?'_

'Yes, a waste.'

' _So, in short: you want her to find you attractive. Don't bother hiding it, foolish brat, I have centuries of experience in reading people's hearts. Now that I somewhat know you, you can't hide from me.''_

'Hmph.'

' _I don't care much for the girl but if you really want to gain her attention, you need her to realize how much of a fool the Uchiha is. This love of her is not based on anything but his looks and attitude.'_

'What are you, some sort of love sage?'

' _Insolent brat! I have seen firsthand how foolish human women can be! Your ancestor Asura faced somewhat the same dilemma. Sadly, it seems you have inherited his less than mediocre wit along with his will!'_

'Well look who's pissed.'

"Naruto!"

Naruto was brought back to earth by the cry. He saw Sakura staring at him with her brows furrowed.

"Geez, you really spaced out there."

Naruto blinked. "Ah right. Sorry. So, how about we go train?"

Sakura seemed to be thinking it over. "Um, I'm not sure how useful that will be. I mean, you're much stronger than I am-"

"And not training with me will somehow make you stronger?"

"Well, I'm not that good-"

"I wasn't born with my skill and neither was Sasuke. The only reason you're weaker is because you don't train much."

"Wha- I do train!"

"Do you? I get up at dawn to train before I meet the team. I train after missions. I look for teachers to learn new skills. Do you?"

Sakura went silent. Naruto did that much? Its true she saw him training in the fields a lot of times when she walked by, but she never knew he did so much more. She couldn't help but feel a huge amount of respect for him.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself. We've wasted enough time. Let's go train." Naruto said. "You'll never get what you want if you don't step up your game."

He was right. She did need to catch up and he was offering to help.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Let's go."

Naruto turned to lead the way.

"Naruto?"

He turned around. 'What now?'

"You're- you're amazing."

Naruto stared then quickly turned forward. "It's no big deal. We're friends, right?"

Sakura smiled. Naruto really was amazing.

Once they reached the training field, they stood at a 20 feet from each other. Naruto turned to Sakura.

"Okay. Hit me with everything you've got."

Sakura got into her fighting stance, and then charged at Naruto. Flinging a kunai, she leapt to the right and tried to sweep Naruto's feet from under him.

He could hear Kurama laughing at her skills as he grabbed the kunai by the ring and jumped over her kick. She quickly jumped up and tried to punch him. Emphasis on 'tried'.

Naruto grabbed her fist mid-flight, pulled her and savagely headbutted her.

"Argh!"

'… _.Really?'_

'Anything works, right?'

'… _..*sigh* Whatever works, I guess. You didn't break her nose, right?"'_

"MY NOSE!"

'Hmm. What is this feeling?'

' _Regret?'_

Naruto didn't get a chance to reply. He had to dodge a flying fist, followed by wild kicks and swings. He flipped back and took a look at Sakura's face. She had tears in her eyes and a broken nose. He made a mistake right then.

"Pfft."

"Are…you… LAUGHING? NARUTO UZUMAKI! I. WILL. KILL YOU!"

"N-no! I wasn't laughing! I didn't mean to break-"

"Shut. UP!" She was surprisingly faster when she had the proper motivation it seemed.

"The medical ninja at the hospital can patch that up real quick, 'ttebayo!"

But it seemed that Sakura would not listen. Naruto ducked and weaved under her poorly aimed, rage fueled strikes.

Half an hour later, Sakura was on Naruto's back, too tired to fight, her muscles aching. Naruto was carrying her to the hospital.

"I really didn't mean to break your nose."

"Shut…..up….kill…..you…" she panted.

Naruto entered the lobby. Luckily, there weren't too many people there.

"Training accident?" the woman at the desk inquired. Apparently it wasn't odd for people to show up on a person's back with a bloody nose.

"Um, yeah. Where do I put her?"

"Follow me."

Sakura had fallen asleep on his back. He followed the med-nin to a room and laid Sakura down on the bed.

"It's no big deal. It'll be fixed within seconds. You better leave, though. I have a feeling you're the reason for the nose."

Naruto grinned sheepishly.

The woman offered him a kind smile. "She'll get over it. Relax."

"Thanks. I'll be off."

Naruto jumped out of the window onto a tree and found Kakashi leaning on a branch higher up.

"Well done, Naruto-sensei."

"Agh, you're still following me?"

"You knew?"

"Ever since we reached the training field."

"Hmm. You made Sakura train. Well done. But breaking her nose to motivate her? Very unusual."

"Don't," Naruto said, his cheeks heating up. "remind me. I've never had to hold back that much, so I didn't expect to be able to injure her that easily."

"Well I was surprised as well. Knowing you were the stronger one in that fight, she really should've tried to hide first and strike after. It's a lack of experience, I guess."

Naruto was struck with an idea. "Hey Kakashi-sensei."

"Hm?"

"Teach her. She'll obviously, er, want revenge. Maybe she'll learn better from an actual teacher."

"Huh. That's not a bad idea."

"The Chunin Exams are coming up. She needs the most help right now."

Kakashi seemed to be giving it a lot of thought. "It'll collide with my training."

"You can read your Icha Icha as you train her."

Kakashi chuckled. "Fine, fine. I'll ask her if she wants my help."

"Don't go easy on her."

Kakashi glanced at him. "Heh. You're a good teammate."

"Thanks."

"Terrible friend."

"Whatever."

-Three Weeks Later (One Week Before Exams)—

Naruto sensed someone approaching him. He was in the middle of warming up. It was barely morning. He turned to see Sakura standing there, her hair in a braid and her body garbed in a dark green battle kimono.

"Back again?"

She'd been visiting him regularly three days after the 'incident', wanting to spar. She'd forgiven him for the nose. She was a kunoichi, she realized how childish it would be to cry over a broken nose of all things.

"You won't be winning forever, Naruto." She got into her stance, taught to her by Kakashi.

Naruto got into his fighting stance as well. "I think I will, actually. I like winning."

Sakura began sprinting at him at an impressive speed. She'd asked Kakashi herself once she had woken up from her sleep in the hospital, and for three weeks she trained herself to the ground, challenged Naruto daily all to prove her worth.

She used the Bunshin to trick Naruto, who didn't move. Instead, he leapt through all three Bunshin as two arms emerged where his feet were seconds ago. Jumping out of the ground, Sakura through two waves of kunai at shocking speeds while sprinting at Naruto with her own in hand. Weaving through them with practiced grace, Naruto brought his own kunai out and met Sakura's swipe with his own as sparks flew from the impact. Naruto quickly disengaged and tried to roundhouse Sakura only for her to substitute with a pre-prepared log. Thinking fast, Naruto substituted with one of his own, the log quickly being decorated with sharp shuriken. He raised his hand to block Sakura's furious kick, and then had to bend as the her other leg came spinning at him, forcing him to release her leg. Grabbing the fist that came flying and twisting it around, he pinned Sakura against a tree with a kunai fixed at her neck.

"18-0, right?" he calmly said.

"18-0." She grudgingly conceded.

"Massive improvement, Sakura."

"No where near as good as you, though."

"Don't compare yourself to others. You've done more than I expected. You've changed for the better."

"Thanks. Its all thanks to you, Naruto."

"You mean Kakashi-sensei."

"I know you asked him to train me. He told me."

"Hehe, what're friends for, eh? Wanna have some ramen? All this sparring got me hungry."

Sakura giggled and smiled. "Sure."

* * *

 **Have an opinion to share? Review! Have a question? Send me a PM (please, questions in the PMs, NOT THE REVIEWS). I'd like to ask Anons to not question me, cos I can't really reply and I don't want to list answers in the actual fic. It's quite easy to make an account, even if you're not a writer.**

 **See you sooner than you think. Hopefully.**

 **FiB out.**


	12. The First Test

**I took a break. Sorry.**

 **Anyone else having issues with the Doc Manager?**

* * *

 **The First Test**

Kakashi had told them to meet. He also expressed how incredibly important the mission would be.

"Don't be late." He had said, with an oddly serious look on his face. "This mission… it's important."

They should have known better, Naruto thought as he arrived an hour late. Sakura and Sasuke were both glaring at him discreetly for being smarter than them.

Naruto yawned as he jumped to sit on the small bridge. "Stop glaring at me. I'm not late, yeah?"

Sasuke grunted. Sakura smirked and leaned near the wall. "What if there was an actual mission?"

"There can't be. Today's the day the Jounin will nominate their students for the Chunin Exams. Sensei is doing so as we speak."

"And why," Sasuke piped up. "didn't you let us know?"

Naruto shrugged. "Thought it'd be funny. And it is funny, haha!"

"Jerk." Sakura huffed.

"We should probably hide our skills. Don't want to attract unnecessary attention." Naruto offered.

"Okay."

"Hn."

Just then, he saw Konohamaru run into a boy with face paint wearing a catsuit. He carried a puppet on his back.

'I can feel him…'

'Probably the huge presence I feel behind us. Wanna scare that guy?'

'Hmph. He's unworthy, but why not?'

Naruto began walking towards Kankuro at a leisurely pace.

"I hate brats like you." he heard the boy with face paint say as he grabbed Konohamaru by the front of his collar. There was a girl with her sandy blonde hair in four ponytails. She appeared indifferent to her brother's actions.

Sakura was about to go interfere and Sasuke also looked slightly annoyed at the puppeteer, when the boy suddenly let go of Konohamaru and fell to his knees. If they looked behind at Naruto, they'd see his normally blue pupils red and with a slit in the center, and his smile bearing small fangs. He was directing a portion of the Nine-Tails' aura at Kankuro, who had felt this same aura numerous times before.

This same aura, this insatiable bloodlust, always accompanied by death, screams of despair, the walls painted with red-

"Get up Kankuro." came a voice from behind Sasuke and Sakura, who leapt away ready to fight.

'I can sense him…. The One-Tail.'

He looked like a porcelain doll; milky white skin, red hair and soulless green eyes. He had an aura of faint bloodlust around him From Kankuro's look of utter shock and terror, everyone could tell that a monster stood in front of them.

"You start trouble and….lose. You're a disgrace to our village." the boy said in a strained, raspy voice.

He looked younger than both the puppeteer and the girl with blonde hair, yet they both started shaking the moment they saw him.

Kankuro in particular looked like he was about to faint. The aura he had felt was similar to Gaara's terrible bloodlust, but his experiences with his younger brother told him that the aura from moments ago was foreign. There were two, and both were close.

"I-I-" Kankuro stuttered, shaking.

"Silence."

Gaara vanished from sight and reappeared between Temari and Kankuro. He locked eyes with Naruto for a few seconds, then slowly shifted his gaze to Sasuke.

"What are your names?"

"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke said, his voice a mix of fear and excitement. No doubt he was looking forward to the prospect of facing such a mighty opponent.

"It's rude to ask for someone's name before introducing yourself." Naruto said with a smile.

"My apologies, I am called Gaara of the Desert. These are my siblings Temari and Kankuro. I apologize on their behalf…"

"Uzumaki Naruto. It's no big deal, he let the child go after all."

Gaara's lips twitched. Naruto could fool everyone, but there was no mistaking the immense power he directed at Kankuro, and that was but a small portion of the whole.

"…Interesting. Kankuro, Temari, we seem to be too early. Let's go."

Kankuro was shaking and didn't dare make eye contact with anyone. Temari had a confused look on her face. Exactly what was going on? She glanced at Naruto who was still smiling, and at Sasuke who also had a smile on his face. Gaara acknowledged these two. The Uchiha was acceptable, but she barely felt anything from the other. Was Gaara planning to kill him for amusement?

Or was he a bigger monster than she realised...?

Filing her thoughts away, she held Kankuro's arm and led him behind Gaara.

"That… was weird." Sakura said.

"Be careful. That redhead is a monster. If you face him without me or Sasuke, run. Forfeit if its an option, but do not fight him." Naruto said in a serious voice.

Sakura stared at him. "…..That was unexpected."

"Promise me."

She was getting more suspicious by the second, but she trusted Naruto. He had helped her get to where she was right now, and she knew he had her best interests at heart.

"Fine. But can you tell me why?"

Naruto paused. "Because if you face him, he'll kill you."

The lack of emotion in his voice as he said that sent chills up her spine. She decided not to probe further. She turned to Sasuke to see him trembling.

"Sasuke? Is everything alright?"

Sasuke was lost in his thoughts. These exams would be interesting.

"He probably likes how the redhead looked at him." Naruto put in.

Sasuke turned his head so fast he cricked his neck. Sakura couldn't help but giggle. Sasuke glared at Naruto as he massaged his neck with one hand. "Shut up, I was just thinking about the competition in these exams."

Naruto shrugged. "Whatever you say."

"Hey guys." said a familiar voice. "I got lost on the Road of Life today. Sorry." he said, jumping down from a rooftop.

The genin didn't react anymore. This was expected.

Kakashi scratched his head. "Did something happen?"

"We met the team from the Sand Village."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "Did they cause trouble?"

"No, why would they?" Naruto said.

Kakashi shrugged. "Just wondering. Anyway, I, as your Jounin-sensei, have nominated you for the upcoming Chunin Exams."

Naruto clapped.

Kakashi handed out the forms.

"If you want to enter, submit those forms tomorrow by 4 PM. That's all."

"No missions?" Sakura inquired.

"None. Dismissed." he flickered away.

Sasuke left to train immediately. Sakura turned to Naruto.

"Uh, could you help me with my sparring?"

"How about I give you two Shadow Clones? I need to go somewhere."

Sakura agreed. Evert now and then Naruto left on personal errands and left Shadow Clones. When asked, he would reply that she would see during the Chunin Exams.

-break-

Whistling, Naruto walked up the wall of the Hokage Tower and jumped in through the window.

"Damn brat! Use the door!" Hiruzen yelled. Naruto gave him a wide grin. Sighing, he sat back in his chair. "What is it?"

"My training with Enma sensei is officially over for now." Naruto said, and looked at the Hokage expectantly.

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows. "Ah, right. I forgot."

Reaching into his desk, he brought out a large scroll.

"Made in the Land of Iron by their best smith. He doesn't usually make weapons for ninja, but he owes me." Hiruzen said with a smile.

"Awesome! Thanks, Old Man!"

Chuckling, Hiruzen handed Naruto the scroll. "Open it."

His heart racing in anticipation, Naruto opened the scroll and passed some chakra into it.

With a puff of smoke, a scarlet staff with the ends black appeared. It was the same size as Enma in his Henged form.

"Made from the finest chakra metal. Even blades coated in wind chakra won't scratch it. It's heavier than standard issue, but Enma has trained you to be able to wield this with ease. Hold it.

Naruto stood up and with the staff, got into his stance. He performed ten swipes and he felt as if the staff was an extension of himself.

"Like it?"

"I don't have words for what I feel. Thank you." He bowed.

Hiruzen laughed. "Don't bow. It's a gift from me to you. Although if you really want to thank me… win the Exams."

"That's all? Consider it…. Done!"

-First Test-

Team 7 had assembled in front of the building. Lots of genin were lined up. There seemed to be a commotion in front lf the exam room. Two Genin were blocking people from entering. Naruto knew it was a genjutsu and simply signaled to his teammates to ignore the commotion. The less competition in the Exams, the better. Anybody worthwhile would see through the genjutsu anyway. They went up the stairs hidden by genjutsu, unnoticed by the genin distracted by the ruse. Sasuke seemed disappointed. He must have wanted more opponents to fight against. But to Naruto, the less people that entered the better. An unstable jinchuuriki who loves bloodshed and an Sannin without morals: not the average ninja's ideal company in the Forest of Death.

"You!" came a voice familiar to Naruto. He knew what was coming.

Turning, they saw Rock Lee standing there with his finger pointed dramatically at Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I wish to fight you."

"Not so fast." Naruto smoothly intervened. "Fighting out of the Exams is prohibited. And this very well might be a ploy to study our fighting styles."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow. Who was this green kid?

"Naruto! You would doubt me, your friend?" Lee exclaimed.

"Friend? My only friends in the Chuunin Exam are my teammates. A shinobi's to doubt everyone who isn't an ally. 'To look underneath the underneath', as they say."

Lee stared intensely at Naruto for a few moments, who merely stared back with his hands in his pockets. Finally, Lee turned away.

"Thank you for the advice. I hope we get to fight soon." Lee walked away.

Naruto turned around to see both Sasuke and Sakura staring at him.

"What?"

"Hn." Sasuke said and turned back to walk.

Sakura's gaze lingered for a few seconds more, and then she too turned and walked away. Naruto thought he saw her smiling.

Naruto shrugged and made to follow.

As they reached the classroom, they were hit with the combined aura of all the Genin present.

Sasuke had that smile on his face again, Sakura seemed slightly annoyed by the aura, while Naruto simply looked around. Seeing Shikamaru's team beginning to sit down, he sped over and placed himself behind Choji. He offered the large boy a large grin which Choji could not return.

It wasn't long before Ibiki made his appearance. His face covered in scars, wearing a black trench coat and a bandana of the same color, he looked very intimidating.

"10 seconds to sit down! Anybody without a seat can get out and their team can join them!" he yelled.

The Genin scrambled to sit, a lot of them not managing to get seats near their teams in the panic. Obviously what the examiners were hoping for, a lesson on what happens when you're not prepared.

"This will be a written test. Time limit is one hour. If you're caught cheating, 2 points are deducted. Getting caught 5 times means you have no points left, and you and your team are disqualified. The pathetic ones that get caught cheating will only destroy themselves as Chuunin, be proud ninjas." he said.

With that, the Exam begun. As expected, he knew next to nothing about the answers to the questions. Glancing to his sides, he saw Sakura writing something and Sasuke with his brow furrowed, thinking about something. At that moment, he saw it. The thin black line he'd been waiting for, moving underneath his chair and to the seats in front of him. Thinking fast, he stepped on the shadow. Nothing happened.

'Hmph. It's never easy.'

'Hah! Remember that it's made of chakra…'

Naruto nodded.

He passed a large amount of chakra into it. He heard a low grunt from behind. Naruto had a small smirk on his face.

Shikamaru was annoyed. This was definitely no coincidence. He hadn't expected Naruto to see through their seating plan so easily. First he takes that specific seat, intercepting Ino's jutsu to Choji, now he was causing trouble for them by interrupting his own jutsu. There was no way Choji would know any of these answers, Shikamaru himself only knew seven out of nine. He had to reach Choji's seat, unfortunately Naruto was in the way. Choji and Naruto were seated on one side of the hall. There were many options available to him, but trying to get Naruto caught would put himself at risk and, by extension, his team. Time was running out, he couldn't pass the shadow around Naruto's legs as their would be no camouflage for it under the light. He furrowed his brow. The boy in front of him probably knew this. He knew that his team would arrange themselves in such a fashion to take advantage of his bloodline. He must also predicted that under such closely monitored conditions, Shikamaru could not retaliate without risks.

'….'

His mind was drawing a blank. There was no choice, and not much time left either. He grabbed Naruto's shadow, connecting him between himself and Choji and began writing the answers. After they were done, he saw Naruto turn his head very slightly and he saw the smug smirk on his face.

'…Troublesome.'

He turned to see Ino making a face at Naruto. For some reason, her head hurt every time she attempted to enter Naruto's head and she shivered violently afterwards. She had gotten the answers from Sakura using her clan jutsu, but faced such an issue with Naruto. It unnerved her, she had never faced such a thing.

'Hmph, somebody here was trying to invade your mind. Probably the Mindwalker on the fat oaf's team.'

'I'm willing to bet she was trying to get rid of me. Too bad.'

Victorious, Naruto laid back in his chair and closed his eyes. He meditated till the end of the Exam.

"Okay… let's begin the tenth question…!"

Ibiki face was completely blank as he spoke. An eerie silence held dominion over the room. Ibiki's eyes travelled from ninja to ninja, as if measuring their worth.

"The rules of desperation apply on this question." he said. "You choose to take the question and answer correctly, you pass. If any person in a team fails to answer, you will be Genin forever."

At once, the whole room broke into chaos.

"What the hell! You can't just say stuff like that!"

"Forever!? What?!"

"You're lying-"

Ibiki smiled, at least Naruto thought he did. His scarred face made it hard to make out his expression. The man was choking most of the students here and he hadn't even touched them.

'Fucking scary.' he inwardly thought.

"However," he continued. "I'm giving you a choice. The second rule. You can either choose to take the question and seal your fate right here, or you can forfeit. Forfeiting means you lose all your points and you fail, but you can try again next year. If a person forfeits so does their team."

"This is unreasonable!-" Kiba Inuzuka yelled.

"Too bad. This year its my rules. Nothing else matters."

Naruto looked back at Sakura and Sasuke. They were both staring at him intently.

He winked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and had a small smile on his face, despite the sweat on his face. Sakura blushed slightly and looked away, also smiling.

"Aren't you a little too confident for someone who's putting everything on the line?" came Ibiki's voice.

Naruto turned to face him.

"What's the point of being a ninja," he replied. "if I'm going to pussy out at an exam? I'm not leaving."

"You'll be Genin forever." Ibiki warned.

"Genin must be what they're calling Hokage nowadays, then."

A few people laughed, only to shut up when Ibiki glanced at them.

"Hmm…. Anybody want to forfeit? Do it now."

Lots of people left, breaking under the pressure, apologizing to their teams. The number of teams slowly fell.

"Anyone else?... No?" he smirked. "Alright then…. Good decisions, all of you."

"Huh?"

"I congratulate you 78 on passing the first test!"

* * *

 **See you soon. FiB.**


	13. The Second Test

**The Second Test**

Naruto leaned back in his chair as Ibiki explained to them how the test was made to test their skills in gathering and sending information under pressure, and how the tenth question was a test of whether or not they had the courage to take a leap of faith in times where the future was unclear.

"Taking risks to get information…. Facing situations where the information is more valuable than your own life…. You need to be able to do your work without revealing yourself."

He took of his bandana as he spoke and the classroom gasped as one. Even Naruto's eye twitched as he saw the state in which Ibiki was in. His whole head was covered in gruesome scars- drill holes, scratches, cuts of various sizes, burns, and some which they could not identify.

"The information you get can be an incredible weapon for your allies, but if you give yourself away there's no telling what the enemy may do. They may play tricks and reveal false information or you could end up losing your life. This test separated the ones who had the ability to gather information and the ones that didn't."

"Then question ten, what was that about?" Temari asked.

Ibiki chuckled.

"Question ten was the real purpose of this test. A real test of will, a leap of faith. Those who can be courageous and face hardships in missions where information is limited and possibly false are the only ones who can become Chunin. Those who do not back down even when their lives are at stake are the ones who can pass. Cowardly pieces of trash have no place here! I feel they have no right to become Chunin!"

'This is so boring…'

'She should be here any second.'

'I changed my mind, I can handle this.'

"Those of that passed, I wish you the beat of luck in the next test!"

The class cheered when suddenly the window broke and a ball of black cloth flew in. Unraveling in mid air, the corners of the cloth were stuck on the wall by expertly thrown kunai and a woman landed in front of it.

"This is no time to celebrate! I'm the examiner of the Second Test, Mitarashi Anko! Follow me!"

Silence.

Ibiki walked around the cloth with a very annoyed expression on his face.

"….Horrible timing." he said.

The woman named Anko had the decency to blush and grinned sheepishly. Regaining her composure, her eyes travelled across the classroom.

"…..78!? 26 teams are left?"

"Heh, lots of outstanding kids this year." Ibiki laughed.

Anko glared at him. "You must be going soft, Ibiki. No matter, I'll cut them in half in my test.

The classroom erupted in whispers.

"Cut us in half?"

"What is she talking about?"

"Who is this lunat-"

"Ah, this is going to be exciting! I'll explain more later, once we've changed locations. Everyone, move to Arena 44."

"Arena 44!?"

"They can't be serious?"

"MOVE! Now!"

* * *

"The Forest of Death. How refreshing." muttered Naruto. This place was in a way, the place where it was all set in motion.

"Hn. This is nothing." Sasuke seemed oddly eager to start the test.

"It's nothing good. That's for sure." Sakura however, looked uneasy.

"Let's get signed up before Dango Lady starts throwing kunai." Naruto chuckled.

Suddenly turning his face, he caught the kunai whizzing at him in his hand while simultaneously grabbing the hand swinging at him from behind.

"How may I help you?" he asked Anko, who had a shocked expression on her face.

"Exciting."

She disappeared from sight and tried to bind him from behind, but Naruto was expecting something like that. He quickly deflected the second kunai flying at him.

She had another kunai right between Naruto's thighs.

"I'm not sure which part of this you find exciting, lady."

He had the first thrown kunai right at the center of her chest. However, she was still holding back. He could feel the kunai seconds before he got his own in position, and one second is more than enough for someone like her to take his life.

Anko licked her lips.

"Nice reflexes, brat."

Naruto rolled his eyes and handed the kunai back to her. "You're faster.

"Heh… At least you managed tl respond...I'll be paying close attention to you, brat." And with that, Anko turned and resumed her examining duties.

Turning to his wide-eyed teammates, he told them to get signed up. Blankly staring, they followed him.

"You weren't serious when we were sparring were you?" Sakura asked with a displeased expression on her face.

"Of course I was serious. That lady was going easy on me. If she were serious, I'd be a stain on the ground right now. Or worse."

"Tch. Obviously, how would you have the skills to go up against a Jonin?" Sasuke mocked.

"Mhmm." Naruto didn't pay him much attention.

"….Well, isn't this going to attract attention to us now? There'll be teams trying to get rid of us now that they've seen you go up against a Jonin."

"Makes it more interesting, eh?" he foolishly scratched the back of his head, making Sakura roll her eyes and smile and Sasuke shake his head.

In actuality, the reason Naruto displayed his skills was precisely because he wanted attention brought to their team. If there were a large number of teams in one place the examiners would be close by as well, making it hard for Orochimaru to get his hands on Sasuke.

He turned his eyes to the Grass-nin team to find Orochimaru, still in disguise, talking with his teammates.

'I'll take on a bunch of overconfident genins on any day rather than that filthy snake…'

 _'As you are now, Orochimaru might turn you into fertilizer in an all out fight if you're lucky, brat. He held back a lot from what I saw in your memories."_

'Subtle. He most likely did that so Sasuke doesn't end up damaged or holding grudges against him. Since he's crazy about his body."

* * *

Entering the forest, their vision was extremely restricted. Huge trees everywhere, and there were areas where even sunlight couldn't pass through. They had to take a Heaven scroll from another team and reach the tower, that was their objective.

"This means there's no way more than half can pass." Sakura said, frowning.

"And we just signed thag make us the only people responsible in the event one of us dies. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume less will return from the teams that entered Arena 44."

"Tch. Enough talk, lets move already. Make your clones, we don't have all day."

Naruto made eight Shadow Clones and had them surround their team in eight directions. They were going to scout for any possible threats and maintain their distance from the team. If they found anything, they'd dispel to let Naruto know.

"Let's move. I'll let you know if my clones find anything."

"Hn. Don't mess up."

Sakura smiled at Naruto and nodded. She'd gotten used to Sasuke's attitude and Naruto's way of interacting with him by now."

"Whatever you say, tsundere-chan."

Sasuke's face turned into an ugly expression but before he could retort Naruto already began running forward, towards the tower.

"Shouldn't we find a team first?" Sakura asked, joining him on his left.

"We'll find plenty of teams near the tower as long as we set a trap." he replied.

Sasuke looked dissatisfied with his idea. "What? Traps?"

"The strongest team will make it to the tower first. When we trap them, you can fight them then."

Sasuke seemed to come to the same conclusion, and didn't talk further.

But Naruto had no intention of letting him fight the strongest team. He'd be murdered by Gaara. He had made five additional Shadow Clones to find and track the Sand Team, the Grass Team, Ino-Shika-Cho, Team Gai and Team Kurenai.

He didn't want the scrolls from the Sand and Grass teams, so he'd guide his team away from them. As for the Konoha teams, he could lead Sasuke and Sakura to them if Orochimaru made his move, and proved too much for him to handle.

 _'Your puny mortal body cannot bear my full might yet, what a shame. If it could, what could an ant like Orochimaru possibly do?'_

Naruto's brows twitched when he heard the Kyuubi basically boasting about its great strength to him loudly in his mind. Well, since he had such power, he had the authority to be vain was what Naruto silently thought. The world was cruel. The strong are right, and those who lose are wrong.

'I'll have time after this exam is over, we'll work on my body's endurance then.'

Naruto cut off the link and began channeling chakra to sense forany life-forms nearby. He found some, but all of them were animals and large insects. He carefully began leading his team to yhe Tower.

* * *

-?-

' Konoha. So full of old memories...' he sighed, his lips curving into a fond smile.

Out of the trees, a man fell to the ground and got down on one knee.

"If it's not urgent or regarding his whereabouts, don't waste my time." the man's voice was mellow, yet extremely threatening.

The man hesitated for a bit, sweating. "My Lord- it's urgent-"

He glanced at his subordinate. "Speak." he said, his voice sharp, raspy, and impatient. His eyes locked onto the cowering Grass genin.

"Th- They have located the dead bodies of the Grass ninja. They know we're here."

Orochimaru didn't speak for a while, he simply kept eye contact with his subordinate. "Call the other one here. Fast."

"A-At once, My Lord."

His two 'teammates' stood in front of him, awaiting his orders on their knees.

"…It seems I am running low on time… we'll have to speed up this search if I intend to meet with him…."

"Your orders, Lord Orochimaru." they spoke in unision.

"I have none for you. You are relieved of your duties."

As he turned to walk away, the two Sound-nin's faces turned pale and they shouted words of protest.

"My Lor-"

The ground beneath them gave away, and an enormous mouth swallowed the first person. Orochimaru patted the enormous beast's head, and it hissed in subservience.

"Let's go. We shouldn't keep him waiting for so long…kukuku….."

"Y-yes My Lord." the second man said shivering in fright.

"Go tell the Sound Four that I'll be making my move today."

"I'll tell them to be ready."

With that, the second man disappeared from sight, but he wouldn't abandon his mission. If he ran, he'd have no place to hide in the Elemental Nations. A person like him, if Orochimaru wished it, would think what happened to the first man was a blessing. If Orochimaru was really displeased with you, you'd be lucky not to end up in a test tube in one of his many inhumane experiments.

Orochimaru kept patting the snake's head, unaffected by the faint sounds of bones cracking coming from within the beast. He made a sign with his hand, and the snake dived underground. He jumped onto a tree and began moving swiftly through forest shade, noiseless as the wind, weightless as air. He had a small smirk on his face.

'…You can't escape me…. You will come to me on your own… You WILL be _MINE_ …! And then…..the powers of the Sharingan…!"

"Kukuku…."

* * *

 **I had so much trouble with this chapter. No matter what I did, it felt lacking. Then I thought of adding Orochimaru's scene. Maybe now it'll have a more satisfactory flavour. I hope to live up to all your expectations, and expect some action in the next chapters. R &R, your support is much appreciated! The reviews for the last update pleased me to no end and I am very grateful to everyone who took the time to show appreciation for my work and leave a review. ^_^**

 **And forgive me for the time it took for this chapter to come out, I simply could not bring myself to upload when I felt that the quality is unacceptable. In fact, the only reason I HAVE uploaded is because I don't want you peeps to think I'm a quitter. I'm not. So after a lot of editing, and harassing Guilt of Swords to tell me his thoughts on the chapter, I am more or less satisfied with how this chapter turned out.**

 **Thanks for reading, FiB.**


	14. Unchangeable Fate

**Hey. It's been a while. I had some problems. Was lazy, then started working but spent way too much time trying to improve quality, then was worried about NaruHina fanbase murdering me if I upload, then after I finished, I realized I couldn't keep this rated T. We already have a beheading, and there's more stuff you'll see that's not actuallt 'T', but 'M'. Not lemons, but fights and gore.**

 **So I'm changing this to rated 'M', and hopefully the updates will be more frequent.**

* * *

"Ready?"

"Yeah, but won't the Hyuuga see us coming?"

"I'm confident that even if they know we're coming, we can overpower them easily. Sasuke's fire jutsu will be effective against the Aburame, I can handle the Inuzuka using clones, and you can- well- assist us."

Sakura's lips twitched. "You think I can't handle the Hyuuga? After telling us that she's unable to utilize her power?"

Naruto offered her an apologetic smile. "Honestly? Even I wouldn't approach the Hyuuga carelessly. All they need is to land one strike, and you'll be at a disadvantage. You should actually try to keep her occupied until we're done with the other two."

"If you say so." she wasn't buying it.

Naruto shook his head in defeat. "Let's get moving-!"

At that very moment, the clone following the Sand Team had just dispelled. Gaara had crushed it with his sand, and the clone was powerless to resist.

'… _.Oh great. As long as we don't run into him, we're fine.'_

"Naruto?" Sasuke called out. "Are you done wasting time?"

"-! Sorry, spaced out- sorry. Let's go."

Making two more shadow clones and sending each in different directions, he rejoined his team. The three of them started speeding towards Team Kurenai. Naruto knew there were other teams around, but he wanted to fix Hinata's weakness as discreetly as possible. And this was the perfect opportunity. He'd planned many steps ahead, using his clones as scouts. If all went according to plan, Team Kurenai wouldn't even hold a grudge against them.

They travelled for roughly an hour, when he spotted his clone crouching behind a large log. The clone ran up to them and started giving them infornation.

"…They're just beyond here. Come, we need to make the first move. And if you spot any bugs, crush them."

He made eight clones and sent them rushing in, all using different paths. Sasuke and Sakura henged into Naruto and followed behind the crowd.

"They're here!" the Inuzuka cried.

All sorts of traps ranging from bear traps to pitfalls were prepared. Naruto's clones activated them and dispelled, while the ones that survived charged at the Inuzuka.

"You're called Kiba, right?" he asked.

"Yeah and we're from the same damned village! What the fuck are you pulling here?"

"We," Naruto began lecturing to him, as if they were just chatting. "are not on the same side. We need a scroll, and you have it. Hand it over."

"Huh? No way!"

Naruto wordlessly charged towards Kiba, closing the distance between them in seconds. He jumped and twisted, going for a kick towards Kiba's face, causing the boy to jump sideways to dodge. What he didn't see coming was Naruto exploding into smoke and another Naruto rushing through the white smoke with a staff reared. With a mighty swing, he struck the arm the wild looking boy had raised to guard himself.

Slam! Kiba was knocked into the tree behind him, and his white dog was knocked off his back due to the force. Naruto's assault didn't stop there, he disappeared from sight and suddenly two hands erupted from the ground, grabbing Kiba's legs.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"

Kiba was yanked into the ground, until only his head remained. One of Naruto's clones retrieved Akamaru and tied him up and tossed him in front of Kiba.

"Feel willing yet?"

"Go to hell!"

Naruto left him and turned his attention towards Sasuke and Sakura. Sakura was doing pretty well by herself, she kept Hinata from assisting either of her teammates while keeping her in the same spot using Earth Style jutsu.

Sasuke was absolutely destroying the Aburame. After expertly launching a Fireball Jutsu followed by the Phoenix Flower Jutsu, Shino's bugs were all but useless. He could see the pain etched on the bug user's face. He rushed towards Shino and began overpowering the already tired Aburame.

"We concede! We cannot win so we will hand our scroll over!"

Naruto stopped attacking. A dozen clones dispelled around them.

"Hinata, give them the scroll."

Hinata looked extremely conflicted. She kept glancing at Naruto while shivering. "But-"

"Hand it over." Naruto raised his hand. "You've lost."

"…Why?"

"…? It was our mission to reach the tower with both scrolls."

Hinata handed him the scroll and Naruto placed another one in her hands.

"We beat a team a while back. They weren't strong and we won easily, but they didn't have the scroll we needed."

Kiba flared up, "Why the fuck did you attack us then?!"

"It was a test for our team, we needed to know how strong we are compared to our competition. No hard feelings, I hope. And Hinata, I know you dislike violence but you are a kunoichi. You have friends who'll help you if you just ask. Become stronger, because _he_ currently wants nothing more than to stamp over you and your family. If you want peace, you need to be strong enough to maintain it."

With that, Naruto and his team left wordlessly.

Hinata looked down at the scroll in her hands and found a note wrapped around it.

' _If you need help training, or want to talk, come up and say it. Don't hide.'_

Hinata's cheeks went pink as she realized that Naruto had noticed her frequent glances at him.

"What's that?" Kiba asked.

"It's n-nothing."

Naruto and his team were running towards the tower, their mission complete with time to spare. Suddenly, Kurama decided to speak up.

 **' _Why even leave a note? You don't have feelings for her. Won't this backfire?'_**

'I could have ended up spending my whole life with that girl. She falls more in love with me as time passes, but I want her to not have to rely on me and my ideals for strength. I know nothing has happened yet, but I feel like I owe her a lot. I want her to be strong.'

 **'… _Where is that snake, though?'_**

'If he wants to attack us, I won't see him coming. I've already accepted that much. I'm avoiding all the large chakra signals on the way to the tower just in case they are snakes-!'

Naruto felt a huge pulse of chakra and a large signal rushing at him.

"Jump!"

The ground exploded. Mud, rocks, trees all went flying as a huge serpent emerged from underneath with its jaws open wide, hissing and coiling.

"Ah, a sensor…. You Uzumaki did have lots of them…" a raspy voice called from behind the snake. Falling down from the trees, a pale ninja with long black hair and a snakelike face landed on the snake's head.

"…Orochimaru of the Sannin…" Naruto muttered.

"Why so you think so?"

"Your chakra signal is enormous, now that I can feel it, you look like a snake, have a raspy voice, are excellent at hiding your presence, and did I forget to mention you summoned a huge snake?"

"Well done."

Orochimaru vanished, the conversation was over. Naruto raised his right arm just to block the leg racing towards him a fraction of a second later. Even though he received the blow, Naruto was still sent flying into a tree. His entire arm was shaking.

'Crazy srength!'

"..Oh? You're still conscious? Must be a perk of being a jinchuuriki. I'd love to test your limits, but I'm not a schedule…"

He disappeared again to reappear in front of Naruto and before the younger ninja could react, Orochimaru had sealed his movements after jabbing into his body a few times.

'…All that training and this bastard still takes me to school.'

 **'** _ **He's not even trying.** '_

Orochimaru went and knocked Sakura out, and started sparring with Sasuke, taunting the Uchiha.

"Itachi would be a better challenge than you... You don't even have Sharingan yet."

"Shut. UP!"

Orochimaru took advantage of Sasuke's emotional state and kicked him into a tree, hard.

Sasuke coughed out blood, and started panting, glaring at the man who made him feel so weak, so insignificant.

"Don't look me like that, Sasuke. Believe it or not, I actually want to _help_ you…"

Orochimaru called the snake over and it coughed out a man covered in spit.

The man was coughing and gagging, the snake had swallowed him alive and kept him in his throat.

"My Lord!" he begged between coughs. "Please! I've always been loyal-"

"Yes, you vowed to die for me if necessary. It is necessary. Die."

Orochimaru yanked the man by the hair, making him face Sasuke. His terror filled eyes locked onto Sasuke's equally scared ones.

"…Hmm... here."

The man opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out, only dry heaves. Orochimaru's hand had struck his back, piercing through the flesh, and had torn out his heart through the other side still beating, right in front of Sasuke's eyes. The eyes that had turned red with the Sharingan.

* * *

 **Boom. Yeah. I'll probably edit this again, but I really wanted to upload so you guys know I'm alive and stuff.**

 **R &R. **

**See you soon.**


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